That Vexing Thing Called Dating
by Scriptor of Lacuna
Summary: Ah, the 'perfect' date is something that Booth desperately wants to attain, but when it comes to our favorite anthropologist and FBI stud, anything can happen. Part II is here Enjoy!
1. To Mend a Scientist's Heart

Well, you see when I wrote August 2008 as the date for my sequel...it was a typo...yeah a typo... I meant August 2009. I thought I would be ahead of schedule and upload it in July just to be nice ;D Moving on...this is the sequel to "That Pesky thing Called Love". It takes place a couple of weeks after Booth's fake death in season three. There are certain ideas that pop up from season 4 but nothing containing spoilers. I don't think you have to read the first story, but there might be moments of confusion if you don't. That being said, it has been so long since the original that for those of you have read my first fanfic might have to go back and dust off the cobwebs so to speak. Well, I hope you enjoy the sequel "That Vexing Thing Called Dating".

A not so PS...Thank you to MoonlightGardenias who was my beta for this chapter. She is beyond fabulous and is a grammar guru...she should be worshipped...but not in a creepy way :D

Chapter One: To Mend a Scientist's Heart

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Booth was definitely having one of those Déjà Vu moments everyone talks about. He could have sworn that two months ago**,** he was sitting on this same uncomfortable sofa, in this same beige coloured waiting room with the same pissed off Forensic Anthropologist sitting next to him. He turned to his left and gazed upon her ram-rod posture and pinched expression. Yep, this was definitely a Déjà Vu moment; the only difference being the reason why Bones was infuriated with him. And the reason was there, giant, gargantuan, and in the corner eating peanuts.

The dull, yet all too familiar ache within his chest was just a gentle reminder of what had happened over the last two weeks. Brennan was taking punishment to a new level by reverting back to the woman he had met almost three and a half years prior. They functioned well enough as professionals, but it was the little things that he was finding the most difficult to adjust to. He was there to pick her up and drive her home as usual, but there were no more meaningful looks or longing stares from her. Their conversations were either about work or something non-committal like the weather. Booth was going to end up bald by all the hair pulling conversations about weather; cumulonimbus clouds are not that interesting.

All these to the untrained eye could be seen under the 'nothing has changed category', but the fact that smacked him in the face daily, every hour, every minute and even every second was that he was not allowed to touch her. The second day of his return had casually placed his hand on her back and she froze and warned him not to take such liberties again with her body. He made the mistake of leaning in to kiss her that night, but the only thing his lips met was her door. The lack of physical contact with Bones was slowly deteriorating the hope that tried to linger. Booth was fairly certain that he was losing his mind because have sworn the first night back in his apartment he could smell her perfume on his pillow case and on one of his shirts, but that was probably just the result of him wishing she was there with him, wrapped in his arms.

Apologizing had been all for naught, and that was why they ended up here outside the kid's office sitting on the same uncomfortable couch, in this beige coloured waiting room, with his very pissed off partner sitting next to him. He hoped this would work because the alternative meant that he would never see her eyes sparkle with delight during their first date, be able to feel her heart beat after they made love, hear the clanking of their coffee cups first thing in the morning, fight over bathroom counter space, or watch her hair turn grey. His gaze wandered yet again to the woman sitting next to him; to the woman he loved, and he wondered how long it would take to get her back.

Dr. Temperance Brennan was many things: doctorate holder, black belt and New York bestselling author, but what she wasn't was what Booth called a "happy camper". She had no idea what that meant, but Booth kept referring to it. Two weeks of self preservation had led her to be in this waiting room for the first time since that day. Despite Angela's repetitive "biggest mistake of your life" speech, she knew that she had made the best decision and besides, logically speaking, Brennan's life was not over yet, so there were many more mistakes to be made.

She glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was staring at her. He was always doing that, and the worst part was that he always had the same mangled mixture of expressions on his face: love, lust, passion, concern and sorrow. But, out of all of the expressions it was the glint that would flash across his introspective brown eyes that made her breath hitch; a glint of pointed pain that hit her like a blade. She had smashed something precious to him and he was desperately trying to glue the pieces back together.

She started to slump down slightly on the uncomfortable sofa, changing her once ram rod posture. Rationally speaking her reaction had been fine, within the context of what had happened, but if she didn't know any better she could have sworn that her 'gut' was telling her otherwise. Did she really want to win this battle? No matter who won she would end up hurt, the facts spoke for themselves. Fact one: Booth's presence is a constant painful and pleasant distraction. Fact two: Booth's absence had pushed her to the brink, yet she wanted to distance herself from him. Fact three: she yearned to hear his voice and to feel his touch, but was far too obstinate to give in. Either way she looked at it**,** she was going to get hurt again. The longer they were together as a couple, the harder it was for her to go back to her past self from three years prior: alone, composed and not craving for his touch. That way she would not have to feel the unbearable and overwhelming pain from that day. She glanced again, and he was still looking at her. He wasn't going to make this easy.

"Would you please stop staring at me**,** Booth?" She finally turned to meet his gaze for the first time since arriving. She was met with that all too familiar glint in his eye, but then a smirk appeared.

"I'm not hurting anyone Bones, I am just looking."

"Just look at something else."

"No, I like this view much better."

"Why don't you just stare at the wall?"

"Oh come on**,** Bones, the wall doesn't have your stunning smile." His smirk was turning into a full blown grin.

"Are you flirting with me?"

"It's not like I was being subtle**,** Bones."

"Well**,** while you're at it**,** please stop flirting with me as well."

"Oh Bones, you are only experiencing level one of Booth Flirtationness."

"That's not even a real word**,** Booth."

"Oh it is**,** Bones, it is." He smiled fully now and added a wink. _Oh god if this is only level one, then I am not going to last much longer._

"Stop it, Booth."

"Nah, where's the fun in that?"

"Nothing about this is fun," She chided. He sighed.

"Come on, Bones, you know you cannot keep this up forever."

His vision was once again replaced with her profile, her back went straight again, and he was also graced with a defiant snort.

"You know that the weather patterns for this time of year are...."

"Enough with the weather, Bones!" She stopped and looked at her hands, "You have to stop changing the subject just to avoid a conversation we should of had weeks ago." He stared at her profile hoping for some hint of a conversational opening.

"Come on, Bones, eventually you are going to forgive me."

"Flat chance."

"HA! You see you said 'flat chance'. It's fat chance! See we are getting back into our groove, Bones. You know where you can't get pop culture references and I correct you."

"We don't have a groove."

"Oh yes we do, and if you recall it is that very same groove that had you rethinking your stance of pigs flying." She gulped. _Not that. Please anything but that_. Flashes of that day streaked across her mind: the taste of him, the feel of him, and connection with him.

"I barely even remember." He went agape.

"Barely even...oh nice, Bones, you remember just fine. The blush on your cheeks tells me otherwise." As if to prove him right her face went redder.

"You see, your body remembers it's just your mind that is getting in the way. Brain versus heart, Bones. You put your heart into overdrive for your father, why can't you do that now?"

"Can we please talk about something else?"

"No. If we did actually talk about it**,** then you would realize that it wasn't my fault."

"Wasn't your fault?" Her head whipped around to look at him.

"It's not like I wanted to get shot!" A pained expression flashed across her sapphire blue eyes, but was quickly marred with anger once again.

"No, that wasn't your fault**,** Booth." It was hers and she dealt with that every day. If they hadn't been so close than he wouldn't have been shot, but that did not excuse everything.

"The events after the shooting were definitely your fault**,** Booth."

"How many times do I have to apologize before it becomes redundant?"

"By definition, the second time you said it." Booth ran his hand down his face in frustration.

"You cannot keep this up, Bones, look at yourself...if your back was any straighter it would snap." Her back, if it was possible, went even straighter. She turned back to stare at the no**t** so riveting beige wall.

Booth sighed. He was within arm's reach of the woman he loved, yet he felt as if he was miles away. He was losing her to her former self, and it was becoming unbearable to watch. _Ok, so let's skip to level three_. He leaned over and placed his index figure under her defiant chin and turned her face towards his.

"Temperance**,** I am not above begging." He said as he gave her his best charm smile he could muster. "Please**,** Bones."

She felt it, that giddy like feeling stirring within her, that flutter, that rush which had been denied for so long. He made it so much more difficult than it needed to be. With all the strength she could muster**,** she lifted her chin from his finger perch and gazed at her hands.

"Booth**,** you can't always get what you want."

"I know that Bones, but maybe you can have what you always wanted."

"What I want is to be left alone."

"Well, that will never happen, Bones."

"Well, you could always fake your death again," and there it was, the elephant that had been with them every single second since he faked his own death had finally been identified.

"Bones, I told you I had to do it. It was the only chance of catching that guy."

"That part I understand, Booth. It is the fact that I wasn't told."

"I wrote a list, Bones. You were meant to know."

"Well then how was it, Booth that I didn't know until I saw you alive and well at your own funeral!?"

"I don't know why you weren't told!" He threw his hands up in the air and stood up, "this is getting ridiculous, Bones."

"Ridiculous!" She was suddenly on her feet and facing him. "You," she leaned down and poked him in the chest, "you could have told me, but you didn't!" Booth grabbed her hand, the first physical contact in two weeks. Her sudden intake of breath matched his own. They were now standing inches from one another. The beige walls were slowly getting torched by flashes of passion ricocheting off of them.

"I couldn't tell you."

"Couldn't or wouldn't?"

"I was ordered not to have any contact with anyone."

"Ordered? How many times have you and I broken the rules Booth, and this one time you didn't?"

"I knew I couldn't tell you and that is why I had a list."

"So you keep saying, but I have yet to see this list."

"There was one, and you were on it. Not just on it but at the top, very top. First, numero uno."

"Then why wasn't I told!"

"I don't know!" They were nose to nose, two individuals trying to occupy the same space, trying to find the answer to a puzzle that was missing an important piece.

"Do you want me to find out why you weren't told?

"Yes, that is what I want."

"And then will you forgive me?"

"I want you to find out, only for factual evidence. It will have nothing to do with forgiveness."

"Great. Fine. I will just ask Sweets. He is bound to know and then this will all be cleared up, and I can finally take you on our first official date."

"I am not dating you, Booth."

"No, of course you won't because that would make logical sense and clearly I am dealing with Bizzaro Temperance, I am just like Superman."

"I don't know what that means, but I know that I am far closer to being logical than you are."

"Oh great, I love it when you insult my intelligence. Warm and fuzzy Bones, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy."

"Booth, I didn't mean..."

"That's okay Bones, I forgive you. See how easy it is...to forgive someone."

"Don't trivialize this, Booth; it is hardly the same thing!"

"Trivialize? Oh, I am not the one being trivial, Bones. You are the one that is willing to throw away what we have because...well that is a really good question now, isn't it? What is your reason for throwing what we have away?"

He was close, too close.

"What does it matter, Booth?"

"It matters to me; just tell me how to fix this."

"Well getting Sweets involved at this point in time was not the best way." Sweets would only dig deeper.

"Geesh Bones, you think I want to involve the kid in this? He probably still blows bubbles in his morning milk! So no, he wasn't my first choice, but clearly I am desperate; I will do anything to make this better."

"Anything?"

"Yes, anything and everything."

"Then promise me you we can go back to the way things were before."

"Ok, anything except that."

"So, you aren't willing to do anything and everything then?"

His left eye twitched slightly.

"I am willing to do anything within reason, which you should like, to make things better between us."

"Then why involve Sweets if you want to make things better? Though I recognize that his expertise is valuable in certain situations, it has no bearing on us."

"WHY? Are you kidding me? You clubbed me in the face Bones, so I think the welt and the bruise on my face I have been wearing for the last week or so warrants at least a real conversation instead of the one sided conversation I have been having with your voice mail, oh and not to mention that you won't let me touch you. "

"Oh, and you don't think you deserved that?"

"I was shot! I took a bullet for you. Right here, Bones," he pointed his finger to the spot where the bullet pierced his flesh.

"Once, Booth, and you can't keep using that as an excuse!"

"For any other woman that would have been enough, but no not world renowned Dr. Temperance Brennan, no, no, you won't be happy until I am maimed, humiliated or worse."

"Worse...you mean dead." And they were back to the not so immovable elephant in the room. He just stared at her. This was a mess, his mess, her mess, just one big pile of mess.

"Bones, I..."

"Don't bother Booth, it's done. All you need to do is accept it."

"Never." He moved towards her, but she evaded his grasp.

"I am leaving, this was mistake." She turned towards the path of least resistance, the exit.

"Don't do this, Temperance. Not after everything we have been through. Just try and be fair..." She stopped which made him pause. The beige wall, that were once scorched by their passion were now frosting over. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, momentarily surrendering. She slowly turned around and strode towards him until they were face to face once again. Then she leaned towards his ear, the warmth of her breath causing his hairs on that side of his neck to be momentarily soothed.

"Fair. You want to talk about fair, Booth?" Her voice was even, unemotional and eerily telling. "Was it fair that the very last image I thought I had of you could have your blood stained body being rolled down the hospital corridor? Was it fair that you were safe and healthy for two weeks while I had to live under the illusion that you were dead? Life is not fair Booth, and I know that better than anyone." She leaned out once again and their gazes locked. Pain reflected pain.

Booth lifted his hand to her face. She slapped it away. He tried again with the other and she repeated the process.

"Don't touch me." It wasn't a warning this time; it was a plea, one he was not going to obey. He moved again gliding his hand along her neck and intertwined his fingers with her dark locks. She pushed her hands against his chest, not really trying to push him away, but not pulling him close either. He gently lifted her chin with his free hand and touched his forehead with hers. Her walls were not as good as they once were.

"Temperance, I am so sorry for everything. I want nothing more to make things right. I am truly sorry." She pulled back and looked at those beautifully sincere brown eyes before moving her right hand over his heart feeling the gentle thumping against her palm. So strong, so alive, yet powerless when it came to logic, science and reasoning; to go back, to truly go back, meant that progress had to be reverted. A coldness needed to be fed and nurtured once again for her to truly mend her walls.

"Is there anything else, Booth?"

"That depends Bones, what are you looking for?"

"Something to make all of this go away." He only had one level left.

"I love you**,** Temperance." They held each other's gaze until she gently pushed herself from his embrace and gently laughed a haunting chuckle.

"Do you remember when we were in the Diner and you said that we could start defining what you called our love**?**"

"Yes, I remember."

"Well I think that it is fair to say that your 'love', or whatever it is, between us is just a chemical reaction that creates a delusional and irrational state where everything is expected to be excused under the pretence of love."

"For crying out loud Bones, I did not say 'I love you' to make you forgive me! I said it because it is the truth; it is not going to change no matter what happens."

"Really, Booth? You'll do anything to get me to forgive you. So love, whatever it really is, is not good enough when it becomes a weapon, or worse, a burden."

"My love is like a weapon and a burden to you?"

"Yes, that is what I said." It was his turn to chuckle.

"That's it. That is all you've got. Well then, I have to agree with you Bones because right now I am feeling the twist of your blade quite nicely. "

"You see, there is only one logical thing to do, Booth."

"Yes Bones, FORGIVE ME!"

"No, end this before it even starts."

"Ok, as soon as you build a time machine and travel about three and a half years ago, then we can end it before it even began."

"Time travel is scientifically impossible Booth, and I don't mean our partnership. Our record stands for itself and it would be illogical to end our very successful partnership. I mean the romantic relationship that we were foolish enough to think of entering three weeks ago."

"Oh I see...no."

"What do you mean no? You don't have a choice, Booth."

"Since I am the other person in this relationship, I say no."

"Yes.

"No."

"I am not going anywhere, so deal with it. We are going to date, make love, and live our lives together. The sooner you accept this, the better."

"I don't understand why you are making this so difficult?"

"Well Bones, I have sworn to protect you and now I am protecting you from making the biggest mistake of your life."

"I don't see it that way, Booth. I am saving myself from making the biggest mistake of my life." Booth smiled, he had had enough. He strode towards her cupped her face and smashed his lips against hers. It wasn't sweet; it wasn't tender, or heartfelt. It was desperate, primal and exposed them to the rawness that was their love. It quickly turned into a three year pent up, passion filled, 'I would take you right on this uncomfortable couch, in this beige office' type of kiss.

They were feeding, two weeks' worth. They were allowing the primal human need for physical contact to feast on the splendours. She grabbed onto the lapels of his jacket and hung on for dear life, knowing all the while that she was so desperately wrong. He ran his hands through her hair as an anchor**,** knowing all the while that she could slip away from him once again. Just as he felt her start to gain her composure, he used up every last ounce of will power and pulled away from her ravaged lips. He took his hands and cupped her face forcing her to look at him.

"We are not a mistake**,** Temperance. We will get through this." He whispered breathlessly.

"I will not let you in again**,** Booth." She whispered through ragged breaths. He took his hand and placed it over her heart feeling the strong, rapid beat underneath his palm.

"You don't have to Bones, because I already have the key."

In an instant her face hardened**,** and she pushed him back. He was right, she couldn't do it. She was connected to him, so deeply that any shift caused unpredictable ripples through one another. It wasn't going to take three years for Booth to knock down her walls; it only took seconds after she saw him at the funeral. Her walls were dismantled and were blown away. She knew it. He knew it. What was revealed was almost too overwhelming; luckily**,** she would get her reprieve.

The door to their usual counseling room opened revealing a very nervous looking Sweets. As he ushered them in she felt Booth's hand on the small of her back, and she was struck by something so completely common and natural it took her breath away. Though it wasn't scientifically possible, she believed she was suffering from a broken heart, just like Angela had said that night in Booth**'**s apartment. But Angela had been wrong about one thing. Booth could not mend this chasm...it was up to her. It was her heart and she would fix it, she just did not know how.

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So there was a little back tracking from my last story, but he faked his death and I have always thought that would have a greater impact on her than they portrayed on the show. Well as always reviews, the good, bad and the crippling, are always welcome. Cheers :D


	2. The Record of Forgiveness

Oh I am on a roll here people...just a little over a week and I have updated. This is quite momentous for me...I think I might give myself a pat on the back *pat, pat*. Since this story is set at the end of season three (it is more like the season three finale never happened because you will be seeing Zack real soon) I always wanted to fiddle with the whole fake death aspect and its repercussions. Thank you to all of you who reviewed, faved and alerted this story...it put a smile on my face, which is hard to do with no new Bones episodes until the fall. I hope you enjoy chapter 2: The Record of Forgiveness

And not to be forgotten...my wonderful beta MoonlightGardenias who takes the time to not only edit every chapter, but she also keeps me on the straight and narrow with my characterization so I can deliver the best story possible. She deserves the pat on the back more than I...and a pony because everyone should have a pony :D

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For Dr. Lance Sweets, the day had started out like any other Saturday. He awoke to the gentle sounds of the streets beneath his small yet affordable apartment, slipped into his fuzzy robe, and walked into his living room where his action figures decorated the shelving around his TV. He turned on the TV to his favourite channel; that coyote always cracked him up especially when he held up the 'Yipes' sign. He wandered into his adjoining kitchen and poured himself a glass of milk and started to eat his much ritualized breakfast of Lucky Charms. After his 'hearty' breakfast, he decided he would go to the office to catch up on some much needed paper work.

It had been close to noon when his leisurely afternoon was interrupted by his cell phone ringing. As he read the name on the caller id, he felt the colour drain from his face. He had been expecting this call for quite some time, ever since he had front row seats to the funeral slugfest. The conversation was brief because it wasn't really a conversation, more of a command for a meeting to discuss a few things. Before Sweets could make an excuse he heard a click on the other end of the line.

So over the next couple of hours he sat there, in his office, imagining how he was going to perish. It brought back memories of his teen years when his morose appearance reflected his contemplation of death and what life itself meant. As he got older and started to find his place within the world he started to really like the idea of the 'very old and in his sleep' type of death. Unfortunately, due to his own obsession with two of his patients he was probably going to meet his untimely demise being pummelled to death, or possibly thrown out the window, or shot. Sweets bent his head down until his forehead hit his desk. After a mumbled 'ow' he turned his head until his right cheek was pressed against the surface. He stared at the beige walls in his office. God, he hated those muted tones which were meant to soothe, but in reality he felt anything but soothed.

Sweets suddenly bolted upward when the voices from the waiting room took on an all too familiar arguing elevation. He couldn't put this off for much longer; it was 5pm on Saturday night, thirty minutes past their scheduled meeting, and keeping them waiting was only making it worse. He reached for his top drawer and pulled the handle until its contents were revealed. On the very top was a small piece of paper with Booth's strong cursive filling up each line, he quickly slammed the drawer shut. He hadn't meant for this to happen and did not mean for it to go this far, but there was no way around it; he would have to face the music, or in this case a FBI Agent with a gun and a Forensic Anthropologist with a black belt.

He stood, puffed out his chest, and tried to feel confident, but it all went to the wayside the moment he opened the door and saw the raging battle that was going on. There was no way he was going to survive this.

"Um Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth I can see you now." Sweets scurried back inside his office to his desk not waiting for an answer. He gripped his note pad and pen as if it was his life line. He turned to see Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan striding towards their usual seats.

"About time, Sweets." Booth stated as he tried to get comfortable on the couch.

"I am sorry I was on the phone with a uh...patient... yes a patient."

"On a Saturday night?" Booth asked.

"We're meeting on a Saturday night, Agent Booth."

"Whatever, Sweets." Booth undid his jacket revealing his holstered gun. Sweets gulped.

"So, um, Agent Booth, you are the one that called this meeting..."

"Unnecessary meeting, Dr. Sweets." Brennan corrected.

"Bones, we have been over this. We need some help, even if it is from him, because things are not fine between us."

"I am fine, Dr. Sweets." Dr. Brennan stated.

"Oh, well if she is fine then I am fantastic, so fantastic that rainbows are coming out of my ears."

"Booth, it is scientifically impossible..."

"I think what Agent Booth is trying to say is..."

"That my girlfriend blaming me for something that isn't my fault."

"I am not your girlfriend Booth, well I mean I am your friend and a girl, but not in the context you are placing it in."

"You see Sweets, do you see what I have been putting up with?"

"Um, actually Agent..."

"Booth is just having a hard time to adjusting to the fact that a simple apology is not going to work."

"It would if you would accept it."

"And forgive you for everything under the guise of this supposed list?"

"It exists, Bones! Why would I lie? I want to make this right, not worse."

"I don't know, Booth; I am not privy to your inner thoughts."

"Doctor Brennan, I think that you should know that..."

"You know what, Bones, I think that you don't want there to be a list."

"Is that so?"

"Yes that is so, because that would mean that you are wrong, which you are, and if you are wrong then you would _have_ to forgive me."

"I did face it, Booth. It was Angela that dragged me to your funeral, I was perfectly satisfied that you were just a corpse." Booth was gobsmacked. Sweets' eyes darted back and forth between the two; things were worse than he thought. One was almost in complete denial and the other was forcing an issue that hadn't really been dealt with yet.

"You, you weren't even going to go to my funeral?"

"No I wasn't."

"But Bones, I was dead and you weren't even going to come to say goodbye?"

"Correction, you weren't dead."

"You didn't know that!"

"And whose fault was that?" She crossed her arms as he exhaled in exasperation.

"Bones, if I die..."

"When Booth, _when_ you die. All human beings have a life span; I don't think even you can fake that." Booth took a few controlled deep breaths before replying.

"Fine. _When_ I die, I want you there, at my funeral. Ok?"

"Why? You would be dead; you wouldn't even know or be there."

"I would be there for you."

"Like you were when you faked your death."

"And we welcome back the elephant." Booth threw his hands up in the air.

"What Elephant?" Brennan asked thoroughly perplexed.

"Oh come on. Bones, can't you see him in the corner there eating peanuts?" Booth pointed to the far corner behinds Sweets. Brennan turned to look at the empty corner.

"I don't see any pachyderms, Booth."

"Well, there you go. That is why we are here, because you can't see it!"

"There is nothing there, Booth!"

"Agent Booth, I think there is something you should know..."

"Stay out of this, Sweets." Booth sniped.

"But Agent Booth, you asked me to help and I need you to understand..."

"Oh, I understand Sweets all too well. Bones believes that I lied to her about my list, but I didn't."

"Then where is this list? Is it with your imaginary elephant?"

"No," Booth grinded his teach together slightly, "I gave it to Cullen and he said that he would give the list to someone to handle it." He said through clenched teeth.

"Dr. Brennan, this is totally my..."

"Not now Sweets." Booth warned.

"No Booth, you told me you would ask him, so ask him about the list."

"You're right I did. Prepare for a world of wrongness Bones," Brennan rolled her eyes as Booth turned to Sweets, "I wrote a list and I want you to..."

"IT WAS ME!" Sweets yelled. "It was me, oh god, it was me." Booth and Brennan both looked at Sweets as if he had grown a third head.

"It was you what, Sweets?" Booth asked.

"It was me... I am so sorry...I thought that I would find...and I did...but the ramifications...oh God, I am so sorry!" Sweets placed his face in his hands and leaned over until his head was between his legs. He just kept mumbling his apologies.

"Is he ok Booth, he looks like he is going to vomit?"

"I don't know. Sweets, what are you talking about?" Sweets couldn't take it anymore; he had to get it off of his chest.

"THE LIST!!!"

"The List?" Brennan asked.

"You mean my list?" Booth's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, Booth's death list. I had it, and I was the one who didn't tell you, Dr. Brennan." He scrunched up his eyes and held up his pad of paper as a shield.

"IT WAS YOU!" Within seconds, Booth was up on his feet and paper and pen went flying as Booth grabbed Sweets by the scruff of his shirt. Sweets could feel nothing but air beneath his feet. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!"

"Agent Booth, I think you should be aware that you're possibly projecting some emotions of guilt upon me," Sweets felt Booth's grip tighten, "but, I think that they might be warranted."

"How dare you mess around with our lives like that?! Do you know what you put her through?"

"I thought...there was no real harm... "

"No harm, are you kidding me?!"

"It's not like you were really dead."

"She didn't know that!" Booth moved Sweets' mid air to the wall and slammed him rather hard against it. "We are not your stupid little action figures that you can manipulate!"

"I know that Agent Booth...I just... I just...." Sweets was finding it was getting harder and harder to breath. "I wanted information."

"About what?"

"I...I...I can't reveal my findings without Dr. Brennan's permission." Sweets managed to squeak out.

Booth continued to yell as Brennan sat there, still slightly struck by the fact that there was a list. She had been so certain that he had forgotten about her, that he didn't think she should know, but in reality he hadn't lied after all. Sweets had denied her the truth to gauge her emotional response to Booth's death. She had been part of an experiment; a poorly constructed one that was out to prove something that had been trying to find the light of day for a very long time. Brennan looked up and saw that Booth was slowly cutting off Sweets' air supply, not that the latter didn't deserve it.

"Booth, put him down."

"No way Bones, he needs to be punished. I want him to know pain."

"Booth, stop being dramatic and put him down."

"Dramatic?" Booth asked incredulously, "Bones, why aren't you mad? He messed with our lives and you are just sitting there."

"You are partly to blame Booth, you should have told me to my face, but instead you just relied on other people to tell me."

"But Bones..."

"Booth..." She warned.

"This isn't over, Sweets." Sweets finally felt the comfort of his office floor underneath his feet and started to rub his neck, thankful to still have one. Booth threaded his fingers through his hair and moved towards the window to calm himself.

"I want to see it." Brennan stated calmly.

"The List? Oh yes, of course." Sweets rushed to the drawer and retrieved the list and rushed forward to hand it to her.

Brennan took the list from Sweets and gazed upon all too familiar handwriting. On the very first line, next to the "number one" were two names: Dr. Temperance Brennan with 'Bones' in brackets and Parker Booth. He had placed her next to his son on the same line. Brennan knew that there was nothing more important to him than his son, and for her to be even mentioned on the same page as Parker made her breath hitch at the back of her throat. She glanced casually down the list until she was at the very bottom. There was one final sentence that made her feel like her heart was searing her flesh to break free: "Bones has to be told, because I would never want her to think that I would leave her behind, not after what she has been through." Brennan read it over again then folded the paper and clutched it between her hands.

She looked over at Booth, who was now searching her face for the forgiveness he yearned for. She turned her gaze towards Sweets who averted her gaze to look at his feet. She turned her gaze back to the note squeezed tightly in her hand. She had found the truth, but then why did it still hurt so much? Even after reading the note, her chest ached and she couldn't explain it. The note should have helped, but it seemed to make it only mildly better. For the first time in her life factual evidence wasn't providing the comfort she needed. She bowed her head still staring at the note in her hand and let out a ragged breath. The image of her hands was suddenly replaced with his strong hands over hers.

"Bones?" She looked at him and felt her eyes well.

"Sweets. Out." The psychologist practically ran out the door just as Booth brought his hand up to her cheek, gently wiping away the tear that dared to fall.

"Bones, you were always meant to know."

"Obviously." She stated as she gestured to the note in her hand.

"I know I should have told you in person, and I will regret not doing it for the rest of my life, but it wasn't entirely my fault."

"You're right it is partly your fault, however..." She paused not really wanting to say the words.

"However..." He urged as he free hand squeezed hers. She sighed.

"... However given the fact that you didn't lie... I forgive you for being completely insensitive and not telling me to my face, but instead writing it on a note which should have been placed in better hands."

"Bones, that is not really forgiving me." Brennan raised her eye brow, "But I'll take what I can get."

Booth let out a breath which he had been holding for the last two weeks. He leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead, then on the almost dry tear trail, and then on her lips. The tender pressure and warmth of his lips was enough to bring hers back to life. The memory of the passionate kiss he had placed on her lips before their session was replaced by the tenderness and forgiving nature of this one. She kissed him back, content enough with the sweetness that was Seeley Booth. He suckled her sweet taste for a few seconds more before he pulled back separating their lips just enough for their speech not to be mumbled.

"So where do we go from here?" His eyes searched hers.

"I don't really know Booth, but I don't think we have to get back together, because apparently you would not agree to break up with me." She smiled slightly.

"So this means that we are still..." He said, leading her to finish his thought.

"Yes, we are still in what you would consider a relationship."

"A romantic relationship?"

"Yes, Booth, a romantic relationship."

"And we can start dating?"

"No, we are going to try defying the laws of physics first."

"Oh come on, Bones." He whined slightly.

"Booth, technically our breakfast at the diner weeks ago could be considered our first official date."

"No, no, no...that was a pre-date date Bones."

"A pre-date?"

"We weren't technically a couple then were we?"

"Well no..."

"You see! So now we can go on our official first date, Bones."

"You think you are going to win on a technicality Booth?"

"I didn't know we were in a race, Bones?" She bit her bottom lip and looked at him, not convinced it was a good idea.

"Come on Bones, you know you can't resist all of this decked out." He stood and did a little spin and resting his hands on his hips revealing his well defined torso. Brennan stood as well.

"And I know you cannot resist me in my celebration suite." Booth chuckled.

"I think you mean birthday suite, and you're right, I wouldn't be able to resist and that is why our first date will be with clothing required."

"Booth..."

"Oh come on, Bones you know I am going to take you on the most fabulous date first, we will do anything you want." He smiled his first truly happy smile since he had been back. A nagging voice at the back of her mind, which always seemed to sound like Angela, was telling her that this is what she needed, what they both needed, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it yet.

"Booth, can we please talk about this later?"

"Sure, Bones, I am just happy that there is a later." She smiled sweetly as he brought her into an all too familiar, and sorely missed, 'guy hug'. She brought her arms around him, taking in his entire physical presence for the first time in weeks. She felt it then. It swept over her; it was warm, delicate and unsure if it would be allowed to stay. It hurt slightly as it mingled with the pain from the last couple of weeks. She was longing for something; something that she had thought was long suppressed and washed away with her experiences and time. It slowly made its way up her spine and around to her chest. With each heart beat it got stronger, almost overwhelming. She didn't quite know what was happening to her and the fear started to take hold. She stepped back from Booth and shut her eyes so he wouldn't see it.

"Booth, I need you to leave now."

"What!? Why?"

"I need to talk to Sweets alone."

"Bones, if I don't get to kill him, then neither do you."

"I am not going to kill him, Booth."

"Then why?"

"I need to discuss a few things with him." She opened her eyes and was met with a quizzical gaze, "Just go home. I will have Angela pick me up, ok?" Booth's look of concern deepened, he had caught a glimpse of fear in her eyes before she compartmentalized it; he was not convinced it was a good idea.

"Don't worry," she brought her hand to the side of his cheek, "unlike you I don't plan on faking my death anytime soon so it's not like you will never see me again."

"You are never really going to let that go are you?"

"Probably not." She smiled a slightly wry smile before she squeezed his hand. Booth knew that she wouldn't ask to see Sweets alone if it wasn't for a good reason, especially since she thought psychology was a quack field to begin with. Whatever it was he couldn't help her, she needed to do this on her own.

"I will phone Angela for you ok?" Brennan nodded. He got up to leave but her voice stopped him.

"Will I see you in the morning?"

"Of course, first thing...with coffee." He added and as he leaned down and placed a quick kiss on her lips. He leaned out and grasped her hands in his before he begrudgingly left the room.

Outside Sweets was seated on a very recognizable uncomfortable couch staring at the very beige wall. Sweets stood as soon as he noticed Booth.

"Agent Booth, I am so sorry I..."

"Save it, Sweets."

"Agent Booth, I..."

"I don't get it, Sweets. You knew what this would do to her, you know how her parents left her without a word and yet you did this to her, to us. So why?"

"My method was wrong Agent Booth, so wrong, but..."

"There is no way you can add a 'but' to that!"

"BUT...without a doubt my findings were concrete, absolute and finite."

"But...you can't tell me without her permission."

Sweets nodded, "But I can tell you that what you have been looking for, for so very long, you have found it in Dr. Brennan." Booth shook his head, the kid had a way with words, Booth would give him that much.

"You better not mess this up again Sweets, because for some bizarre reason Bones wants to talk to you." Sweets nodded and tried to move pass Booth, but was stopped.

"I swear if you make her upset again, your imprint will be through that wall." And without another word Booth exited the office.

Sweets clutched his chest and fell back down on the couch. He was alive, not that he really believed Booth would kill him...well, maybe a little. After a moment of metal collection Sweets looked at the door to his office. In there was a battle raging between the heart and the mind. Sweets just hoped that he would be able to fix some of the mess he and this pesky pachyderm made before it was too late.

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Well I hope all of you enjoyed chapter two. Love is messy people... I have never known it not to be, and unfortunately for Booth and Bones it is confounded by people like Sweets. All will be well though because I am not one to stay on this mild angst train for long. Next chapter is about Brennan and her identification of a certain pachyderm. Reviews would be wonderful, welcomed and well received! Cheers :D


	3. Identification of the Pachyderm

So I have come to realize that I really don't like angst, emotional or physical, so this will be the last major chapter dealing with his fake death and all. It pops up only marginally in the next chapter. That being said I hope all of you are enjoying the story so far and thank you to all of those who have reviewed, alterted or faved my story. I noticed that in the last two chapters I failed to write this at the beginning so I will make up for it here: **I DO NOT OWN BONES**. Yeah, no I really don't, despite wasting all my birthday wishes on it. Anyway I hope you enjoy chapter three: Identification of the Pachyderm.

I would also like to thank MoonlightGardenias who waved her magical beta fingers over this chapter. She is too kind and fabulous for words.

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The silence was deafening. Sweets had tried on a number of occasions to get the conversation started, but she simply raised her hand to stop him. Her face was impassive, but from time to time remnants of fear and confusion flashed across her eyes; it was taking her longer to compartmentalize, which gave Sweets hope that he could fix some of the mess he made.

Despite what Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan might have thought, this went beyond just a simple experiment. He had spent most of his childhood gathering both physical and emotional scars, but after he was adopted by a warm and loving elderly couple he was lucky enough to learn how to love and be loved. Agent Booth and especially Dr. Brennan were not so lucky.

Sweets suspected that for Agent Booth, his childhood had given him every opportunity to _not_ believe in love, and yet he never gave up on it, in fact he romanticized it. He had placed himself in the role of a gallant knight who swoops in to save the day, and the reward: true love. He thought he found true love with Rebecca; however, his love was not reciprocated and he could not be her knight. Parker was a welcome blessing, but Agent Booth's definition of love, and his role within his definition of love was sorely tested. It was irreversibly fractured when he met Dr Brennan.

For Dr. Brennan, love was just some sort of fairy tale that children believed in. She had a loving family until she was fifteen, then she was left with the bits and pieces of what could have been. Her foster parents were all glaring examples of wicked stepmothers and abusive fathers who shrouded their love in foulness. As the years went by the idea of love became something that adults should not believe in or lean on. Her definition of love formed from years of finding answers in the scientific field: chemical reactions, endorphins and neurons all used to explain love, a love that had never been truly tested with Agent Booth.

So, here they all were at a crossroads of sorts, between fantasy and reality, between fairy tale and science, searching for a common ground for their love. Sweets wanted nothing more than to help repair the damage he had done, so in turn he could get his family back together again. Sweets was just about to start the conversation again when the melodic tone of her voice finally filled the room.

"Scientifically speaking Dr. Sweets, I recognize an experiment when I see one, and I understand and value scientific experiments, because in my life they provide me with facts for solving cases; however, I fail to see how you are qualified to perform one where there aren't even the basics like a controlled environment, a control group and factual evidence?"

"I have my PhD in ..."

"Psychology is a soft science at best, and even though you are adept at reading people, it hardly qualifies as scientific."

"Not that I don't enjoy your constant battering on my chosen career, Dr. Brennan, but I am sure that you aren't here to just insult my chosen field"

"No, I am not."

"In fact, I believe that even though, by your standards, the experiment was not scientific, that you are interested in my findings."

"You would be correct, Sweets. I would concede that you are a specialist, however misguided, and as such I would be able to take into account some of your discoveries during Booth's death."

"Thank you, Dr. Brennan."

"Don't thank me; you are one of many in your chosen field, so you are interchangeable. You just happen to have information I want."

"Wow... uh, ok then. My findings were absolutely conclusive in regards..." She raised her hand to stop him once again. "Oh come on...I haven't even started yet!"

"Your findings cannot be absolute or conclusive when based on conjecture."

"Seriously?!" Her back went straight and she nodded, "Ok...my findings were as accurate as they could be under the uh...unscientific circumstances. Can I continue now?"

"Yes, you may."

"Dr. Brennan, your actions demonstrated an all too familiar reaction to death."

"In what way?"

"You were in mourning." She averted her eyes slightly, but quickly regained her persistent stare as if to challenge him, "That's logical enough, Booth was dead."

Sweets decided that he might as well just dive in, leaving no prisoners, "Yes, but you didn't mourn him just like a friend, you mourned him like you were his wife of many years."

"That is ridiculous, Dr. Sweets. Booth and I are not married." She scoffed.

"No, not in the legal sense, but in every other way you practically are."

"We do not live together."

"You and Agent Booth share a deep connection and..."

"And Booth and I have not had sexual intercourse Dr. Sweets."

"That's...that's not surprising due to your constant sublimation of sexual tension for professionalism, but..." Sweets started to rub his temples slightly. She was not going to make this easy, "What you felt during Booth's absence was very real and I know how hard you have tried to ignore it."

"I wasn't ignoring it, Sweets."

"You weren't even going to go to his funeral...that's pretty hardcore, Dr. Brennan."

"Death is finite. There was no reason to go."

"Agent Booth doesn't feel that way."

"I respect Booth's religious beliefs."

"If that is the case, then why did you agree to go? Was it just for Angela, or was there another reason?"

"Logically speaking, there was no other reason."

"Ok, how about the _illogical_ reason then."

She fell silent. She didn't deal in the illogical, or at least she thought she didn't. She had seen hundreds of corpses before, but the thought of seeing his was unbearable, that's why she walked out of the hospital, and that was why she didn't want to see his body go into the ground. For two weeks she had been feuding with herself, a feud between her brain and her heart. Her mind scoffed at the supposition of it all, a corpse is a corpse; but her heart...her heart embraced the illogical and wanted so badly to say goodbye to him.

Sweets saw that she was struggling to find a scientific explanation for what had happened, and that was her problem. Dr. Temperance Brennan had been pushed into the realm of emotion when Booth had faked his death. She had not dealt with those emotions since her parent's disappearance all those years ago. She locked herself away, not wanting to ever feel that loss again. Just when she thought she could handle the emotions she was feeling in regards to Booth, the fake death happened. She had exposed her heart and had been punished for it. She recoiled and reverted back to the woman who could survive the situation.

Upon Booth's return, all those feelings came rushing back and ended up smashed against Booth's face. She couldn't handle it; her walls faltered and fell so fast that there wasn't time to thoroughly prepare herself. So here she was asking for help from a psychologist, who dealt in the realm of emotion.

"Dr. Brennan, is it safe to say that maybe you have a hard time identifying your emotions towards Agent Booth?"

"I am an Anthropologist Sweets, and it is my job to identify attributes of a particular culture and figure out their inner workings."

"Dr. Brennan, how can you identify something without a point of reference?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Ok, do you know what a depressed skull fracture looks like right?"

"Of course I do."

"So if you discovered a body you would know if the cause of death was due to a depressed skull fracture from blunt force trauma, correct?"

"That's correct."

"So what is your point of reference then?"

"I have seen many examples of that type of injury before and how it affects the structure of the skull, so it is very easy to identify."

"Exactly! So how can you know what your feelings are for Agent Booth if you have never had to really identify them before?" Brennan eyes went wide.

"I have been with men before, Dr. Sweets."

"Did you feel the same way towards those men as you do towards Agent Booth?"

"No."

"How so?"

"It's just different..." _My pulse races, my eyes flutter at his touch, my heart..._

Sweets smiled, they were getting closer, "Ok, well luckily for you I think you might have one that you aren't quite ready to see yet."

"And what might that be?"

"Your characters in your books are Andy and Kathy right?" Brennan nodded, "Are they in a relationship?"

"Yes, the fictional characters that I write have entered into a sexual relationship within the context of the fictional story."

"How do you write them to portray a couple in love?"

"Kathy and Andy converse with each other on a variety of topics, they support each other through a variety of circumstances, they argue, they touch, they kiss..."

"Like you and Agent Booth?"

"Sweets, Andy and Kathy are _fictional_ characters, they are not real...and Andy is not based on Booth."

"You're kidding, right? Come on, I mean he's practically Agent Booth..." He stopped when she started to shake her head. "Well, how do you know how to write a couple in love then?"

"I've observed people, in a variety of cultures, displaying affection for one another."

"Ok, give me an example that you see every day."

"I have observed that couples who are supposed to be in love hold hands."

"Ok, give me another one."

"They often enjoy each other's company in a variety of settings."

"And another one."

"Other bodily contact like sexual intercourse."

"Hmm, that's interesting."

"What is?"

"Everything that you described has everything to do with the physical because the physical is something you can "measure"."

"I not sure I see the problem in that, Dr. Sweets."

"I think that is part of the reason why you are afraid to date Agent Booth."

"I am not afraid, I just don't see the need."

"Dating is a way two people test the emotional waters of a relationship. You are placed out of your comfort zone and forced to reveal parts of yourself." Brennan didn't say anything, and Sweets took this as a good sign. "Dr. Brennan, I think you have been stalling on dating Agent Booth because it would make your relationship and what you feel for him real."

Brennan pondered Sweet's notion; it had merit whether she liked to admit it or not. She would be under the pretence of a date, not just two friends at a diner or colleagues sharing a drink, she would be out with Booth experiencing everything Booth's heart had to offer.

"I can concede that some of what you have just said makes sense."

"Ok, now give me an example that is not physical. Give me an emotion that represents love." Brennan's gazed towards her hands. How was she to gauge an emotional response on that level? She tried to think of an example and her mind kept wandering back to how she felt when she was with Booth.

"I not sure...happiness?"

"Yes! Good, good, keep going."

"It can make a person feel safe?"

"Oh, yeah, love can absolutely make a person feel safe. What else?"

"Fear." Sweets pinched his lips together and gently nodded.

"Why would you say fear is an emotional response to being in love?"

"I have been told that love is about losing oneself in another person, I do not agree with that; however, there may be some truth to it."

"I agree, Dr. Brennan. Love is about losing some control, but that fear that comes from that loss of control can be both good and bad."

"How is it a good thing?"

"To fear something means it has a great meaning or it may have a great impact on your life, and that can lead you to a sort of truth. Love can make a person lose control of their controlled persona; to make a person to do things they never would have even considered earlier on in their life. It is when love surrounds a person that they feel safe enough to break out of their preconceived selves. When fear takes over, that is when love can be hurtful."

"Then why even bother with it if it causes pain?"

"Because when love is truly reciprocated it can be a life changing experience."

"So what you are saying is that once you open yourself up to 'love' you can find truth, but in turn you become vulnerable?"

"Yes, and invincible."

"Nobody is invincible."

"No, but it makes us believe we are."

"So love makes us unintelligent?"

"Totally."

"Dr. Sweets, you're not making the best argument here."

"You like the truth and the truth is love is super messy, and that is why you were definitely _not_ fine when you thought Agent Booth was dead." Brennan didn't look convinced.

"I _was_ fine. I worked, ate, slept, and moved on when I thought Booth was dead."

"Sure, you functioned, but you like completely checked out of your life."

"I was living my life like..."

"Nothing had changed?"

"Yes! What is wrong with that?"

"The fact that you even have to ask me that, Dr. Brennan, should give you a clue."

"He was 'dead'. I couldn't change that."

"Something had changed, you lost Booth!"

"I dealt with it!"

"Ok, so where did you go then to deal with it then?"

"What?"

"After the doctors came out and told us Agent Booth had died, you just walked away and we didn't know where you were for close to three days. We all thought you fled the country, but then Angela found you and you pretended that nothing happened."

"I was just taking some time."

"And, uh, did you find it in Booth's apartment?"

"How did you know?"

"Because, Dr. Brennan, I assume it was the same when your parents left you. You curled up in their bed and wept, clutching their sheets and inhaling their scent." She averted her gaze. She had wanted that connection again, even his scent was just enough to keep sustained until she could get her emotions under control: the guilt and the pain; all of it which could have been prevented if she only could have kept him at a distance.

"It wasn't your fault you know." Sweets supplied, seeing that the quilt was contorting her face slightly.

"It was my fault that Booth was dead. He would have never been shot if we weren't so close. His death was my fault."

"Dr. Brennan, Pam Nunan was a deeply disturbed individual, and she would have found a way to get to Booth, and when that didn't work she would have killed him."

"You don't know that."

"I do, Dr. Brennan. If the roles had been reversed...it would have destroyed him."

"He would have eventually moved on and found someone else." Sweets frantically shook his head, Do you know why he took a bullet for you?"

"Because he is my partner and that is what partners do for each other."

"Yes, but there is more to it than that! He took a bullet for you because Agent Booth loves you and he knew that he would not have been able to survive as the good and decent man we all know him to be."

"I don't understand, he has Parker..."

"Yes, he loves his son unconditionally, and he would have continued on living for him, but unfortunately Parker is not a constant figure in Booth's life like you are."

"He has other family members..."

"I suspect troubles in his childhood have left deep holes in his relationship with his family. So he would not have found any comfort there."

"Angela, Cam, Hodgins, Zach, they all..."

"...would eventually drift apart if you were gone."

"He would have been fine...it should have been me." She whispered.

"No, Dr. Brennan, he would not have been fine. You are his family, and without you Agent Booth would be a very different man. Just like you were a very different woman, or should I say an all too familiar woman during Booth's absence."

"Anthropologically speaking, I have changed within the context of my environment, but overall I am still the same person I have always been."

"Would the Dr. Brennan from three years ago practically lie in order to save her father?

Silence.

"Would the Dr. Brennan from three years ago take care of a small baby to the extent that you did?"

More silence.

"Would the Dr. Brennan from three years even consider entering into a serious relationship with her partner?"

She gently shook her head.

"So maybe there is a different sort of elephant that needs to be identified here." Brennan looked at him incredulously.

"There is a high chance that you and Booth have come into contact with a mild hallucinogen that is causing you to see an elephant that isn't actually there."

"The elephant is referring to the bigger issue here, Dr. Brennan. It is something that is constantly with you, but are unable to recognize it...or should I say you are afraid to recognize it. Let that fear lead you to the truth, Dr. Brennan." Brennan looked into Sweets' encouraging eyes, knowing what he was asking her to do.

"I can usually compartmentalize anything, Dr. Sweets."

"Oh, I know. You are hyper rational Dr. Brennan, but the thing is...love isn't rational. There is no science to back up what the heart wants."

"The heart is an organ, nothing more." Brennan whispered half heartedly because it was getting harder and harder to say that.

"Then why did it break when you thought Agent Booth was dead?"

"My heart is not broken in the physical sense."

"No, but in the emotional sense it was, or should I say still is."

"Love has caused me nothing but pain."

"I know, Dr. Brennan, but in this case it is possibly the most awesome thing that can happen to you."

Brennan sat there, processing. _Yes, Booth broke my heart, and yes Booth loves me, but is that was I feel for him? The pain, the despair, the flutter of hope, the joy that his touch and gave brought, were all those things love?_

Sweets noticed the completely forlorn look on her face. She was close to a breakthrough, but she needed a push.

"Is it so wrong to think that you could love someone, Dr. Brennan?"

"It is not wrong, Sweets; I just don't believe that it is possible."

"Agent Booth believes it is possible, or else he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to try and make things right."

"I know that he loves me, but how do I know if what I feel is the equivalent?"

"Only you can truly answer that Dr. Brennan, but I think that the fact that you are here asking for help from a Psychologist, should shed some light that deep down underneath it all you want to find a way to be with Agent Booth both physically and emotionally." Brennan crossed her arms and twisted her mouth slightly from side to side. Then she sighed and even managed a wry chuckle.

"None of this is scientific."

"Yes, I know." Sweets sighed, exhausted now that they seemed to be back at the beginning again.

"Your argument is rather faulty."

"Probably." He slumped down in his chair feeling defeated. He had failed and had ruined everything. Because of his own misguided experiment, he may have wrecked a relationship that had just started to bloom. He looked up and that was when he saw it...a genuine smile.

"Love can't be measured in a lab, can it, Dr. Sweets?" Sweets smiled magnanimously, she had gotten it.

"Now that sounds like something Agent Booth would say, doesn't it?" .

Brennan sat there quietly as the clocked ticked on. Booth was her family now and while she would be able to live without him in the literal sense, his fake death only confirmed that she would struggle tremendously to do so. Was she ready to do this? Apparently her heart was now into permanent overdrive.

"I think I see the elephant now, Dr. Sweets." She stood and stuck out her hand. He stood and shook it in surprise, but then felt the pressure of her grip, "Dr. Sweets, if you ever perform an experiment on Booth or me again without our permission, I will be more than happy to assist Booth with your punishment. That being said...thank you. You are good at your chosen profession, even though it is still wrought with inaccuracies." And with that backhanded compliment she quickly let go and left the room.

Sweets shook his hand in pain, but couldn't help but smile. He had seen it; that glint of revelation in her eye as she left the room. He was now a witness to a new sort of fairytale, one where there was no princess, but a scientist who was about to sweep her knight off of his feet.

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Well there you go...she's in love and actually freakin' knows it! *Sigh* Onwards and upwards people. The next chapter has Booth talking to Angela and just maybe a confirmation on a date. Reviews would be fabulous! Cheers :D


	4. Something to Cling to

Well here is the next instalment of my itty bitty story. I hope all of you are enjoying it so far. Thank you so much to those that have reviewed...and for those that haven't, well, that is just sad that I will never know what you really think ;D I hope you enjoy chapter 4: Something to Cling to

A shout out and thanks to **MoonlightGardenias**, who clued me in on the 'name game' that so many writers/authors shouldn't play; I am a better writer because of it. If there was a Best Beta award she would win it :D

Disclaimer: Sadly, **I don't own** **Bones**...I know I am just as devastated as you are.

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Angela Pearlygates Montenegro was blissfully pinned under a very hot entomologist when her cell phone started to play "Sexy Back". Peeling her lips from his, she looked disbelievingly at her phone.

"Don't you dare answer that." Hodgins mumbled as he nibbled her earlobe.

"But...it's Booth's ringtone; it could be about Brennan." She whined slightly, though not really wanting to answer it.

"Wait," he leaned out and looked at her face, "why is that his ringtone! If Booth wasn't totally into Dr. B. I would be worried." He stated, only half serious. Angela rolled her eyes.

"You practically begged me to have your ringtone as the X-Files theme song."

"Hey, there are things in this world that cannot be explained! Did I ever tell you about my theory on..."

"And on that note," She reached over and caught the phone before it went to voice mail, "Booth?"

"Hey, Angela." He sounded defeated.

"What's wrong?"

"I need you to come and pick up Bones at Sweets' office."

"Why? Where are you?"

"Look, Bones wants you to come pick her up, ok?" Booth sighed.

"Oh God, what happened?" She sat up, gently nudging Hodgins off of her while turning away.

"Just come and pick her up. Please?"

"Ok, but this doesn't mean you're off the hook."

"I never am with you." She heard a click. She held the phone out and stared as if it would provide her with more answers. Hodgins, who had been patiently waiting on the other side of the bed, reached over and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder.

"So..."

"Something happened at their session today and Booth wants me to pick up Brennan."

"Oooh, that can't be good."

"No, it hasn't been good for a while." Angela said as she started to look about the room, "Have you seen my bra?"

"I think I flung it in the hallway." Hodgins answered proudly. She turned in his embrace, and then pushed him until he was pinned beneath her.

"We barely made it in here." She stated before placing teasing kisses on his chest.

"I was fine with the hallway."

"So was I, except your furniture isn't the best for spontaneity; it being so expensive and so very old." She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. He was more than willing and it was a few minutes before they came up for air.

"I have to go, before I won't be able to." She pulled from his embrace and went in search of her undergarments, giving him a very nice view.

"They will work things out, they always do." She snapped her bra into place and pulled on her thong underwear before turning to answer him.

"I don't know...you weren't there that night." She said as she pulled on her dress.

"Maybe you should tell him."

"It really isn't my place to."

"No offense, but why stop meddling in their love life now?" She shot him a disparaging look, "Ok, hold on and let me add...when they are so close to finally being a couple. When it comes to matters of the heart, maybe, just maybe you should make that judgement call for her." She sighed, but nodded her head. She walked over to her dresser drawer and pulled out a small box and she walked over to Hodgins and slid onto his lap.

"I guess it is time I gave these back to her; she didn't really want to throw them out anyway." She opened the box and smiled at items that would be meaningless to everyone else. "I can't believe you went through the trash and got these for me." She looked at him in pure admiration.

"Are you kidding? That was a good day...the Blattella Germatica larvae I found was off the charts in that dumpster...oh and the bacteria samples I found"

"Ok, I get it, none the less very heroic."

"You mean I'm your knight in shining armour?"

"Not that I need saving, but...." she leaned in gave him chaste kiss before adding, "You are definitely my one and only bug man in armour and don't you forget it." He smiled and nodded.

"You better go and see what all of this is about." She got up and started to walk towards the door to leave, but stopped just as she was about to exit the room.

"I want Brennan to experience what we have Hodgins, but there may be a little too much damage this time."

"I have never known Dr. B to back down from anything, so don't worry ...being in love will not be her down fall." She glanced over her shoulder gracing him with an all too familiar meddlesome smile before leaving the room.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The familiar clicking of heals on the J. Edgar Hoover tiled floors made him remove his face from his hands for the first time since phoning her. She drew closer then stopped, placing her one hand on her hip, jetting the latter outward in a typical Angela stance. Her other hand was occupied with a small box. Booth looked up at her face and saw that she had one of her quirky smiles plastered on her face.

"Hey there, Sexy."

"Thanks for coming, Angela."

"Well, you were kind of cryptic on the phone."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Her eyes narrowed in slight concern, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, no, hell, this has been a weird couple of weeks."

"Yeah, that's for sure. So why am I here again?"

"Bones needs a ride home." She looked down and saw that he was fiddling with his keys to his SUV.

"Ok, but why aren't _you_ driving her?"

"She doesn't want me to."

She sat down next to him shifting the box in her lap, "What happened?"

"Nothing, well something good, I think. You know with Bones it is hard to tell."

"Yeah, she has that effect on people. But, then why are you still here then?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you got here."

"Uh huh, and..."

"Make sure that Sweets wasn't thrown out of the window."

"Why would Brennan do that?"

"Because Sweets is the one who had the list."

"What! Are you serious?"

"He had it all this time."

"That little... I am surprised you didn't throw him out the window." He shrugged.

"Bones wouldn't let me." Angela laughed lightly as he ran his hands over his face then leaned back on the bench, resting his head against the wall.

"So, I was a little surprised to find out that you had actually asked Sweets for this meeting."

"I was a little desperate."

"You don't have to tell me, Brennan was leading you on a merry chase since you uh, came back from the dead." She gently slapped his arm.

"Not you, too."

"Booth, what on earth was going through that gorgeous head of yours?"

"I know, I know."

"You should have told her in person."

"Yeah, believe me I know, and I am paying for it."

"Well, did he help at all?"

"I think so; she forgave me in her own Bones way." Angela beamed as she brought him into a congratulatory embrace, but pulled back when she felt him sigh.

"Booth, this is a good thing right?"

"Of course!"

"Then what's with the perpetual sighing?"

"Why would she need to talk to Sweets alone? I mean what can she say to him that she can't say to me? What if she changes her mind? What if..."

"Ok, slow down there ... first of all; this is Brennan we are talking about. She would never let psychology rule her life; she would take what she needed from it and go from there. Secondly, Booth, she is not going to change her mind when it comes to you."

"She's not?"

"You faked your own death and she still forgave you, yeah she isn't goin' anywhere."

"I know you're right, but God, these last two weeks I really thought I was going to lose her. She has been just so..."

"Oh, I know all too well. You think that last two weeks have been bad you should have seen her when..."Angela pinched her lips and suddenly found her hands fascinating.

"When what?" She shook her head.

"Angela is this about my, uh, absence?" She nodded, "What happened?"

"Booth, what do you think happened? You were dead, we all were devastated."

"She wasn't even going to go to my funeral."

"I know Booth, but she had good reason not to go."

"And yet you made her."

"Yes, because I knew she would regret it, not being able to say good bye to you."

"Then I don't get it."

"Booth, when you were shot everything in her world stopped, floundered and exploded in her face. When the doctors told us you were dead, she just shut down and pretended like nothing happened and walked right out the hospital."

"Sounds like she was acting the same...moving on and all."

"Moving on? Oh no, she didn't move on, Booth."

"Then what did she do?"

"We...we couldn't find her."

"What do you mean you couldn't find her? Where was she?"

"We didn't know where she was for two days. I went to her apartment and it was..."

"What? Ransacked? Was she hurt?"

"No, no nothing like that. It had been De-Boothed."

"What?"

"At first glance everything seemed normal, oddly pristine, but normal. Everything seemed to have a place, but it was the spaces that weren't filled that are what caught my eye."

"What was missing?"

"The pictures of you were gone along with the ornaments you gave her..."

"You mean Brainy and Jasper."

Angela smiled, "Yeah, those ones."

"So...all of it in the trash?"

"Yeah." She opened the small box and revealed the ornaments and some of the pictures, "Hodgins went dumpster diving for me and retrieved them."

"He probably enjoyed that a little too much." Booth said as he picked up Brainy Smurf. He remembered when he gave that to her, she had been so upset that it wasn't Smurfette. Booth knew that there was nothing sexier than his brilliant anthropologist and to insult her by giving her a Smurf, who was basically the village bicycle, was out of the question. They were just trinkets however, and he understood why she did it.

"Did she leave the country?"

"I scoured every inch of that apartment and her passport was gone. We all went to the airport and checked all the outgoing flights, but she didn't leave town, Booth."

"Where was she?"

"She was in the most logical place when I stopped to think about it. Your apartment."

Booth smiled slightly. He hadn't been imagining things, "That's why my sheets smelled like her and one of my shirts...what else?"

"You sure you want to know it all Booth, it isn't pretty and it may make you feel worse?"

"Maybe I deserve worse."

_**Flashback**_

"Sweetie?" Angela called out as she pushed open Booth's bedroom door. This was the last place she could think of to look for Brennan, and she prayed that she would be here. As the door slowly exposed the room, the emotional wreckage of the past few days became apparent.

A suitcase and a purse were strewn about the floor haphazardly; the closet was opened and Booth's shirts and clothes were thrown about and his laundry basket had been dumped about the room as well.

Amid the chaos was a once transient woman sitting on the edge of the bed. A dark travel jacket that spanned slightly slumped shoulders and dark wavy hair that danced on the top of her shoulders were the only physical features that could be seen from Angela's position. She slowly followed the trail until she was within a few feet from her best friend. Brennan sat gingerly on the edge of the bed clutching a ketchup stained white shirt with speckled patterns of dampness.

Angela squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the Brennan before her. Deep breaths were then followed by Angela's eyelids slowly parted revealing the potency of what had transpired over the last couple of days: puffy red eyes, billowing with tears; dark circles hung like fallen moons under once vibrant blue eyes. There was no sobbing, just agonizing silence.

"Oh, Sweetie..." was all Angela could manage to whisper before she kneeled to eye level and enveloped Brennan's cheeks with her hands, feeling the cold, clamminess of tear traced flesh.

"Bren, please look at me." Angela received no response, so she followed Brennan's gaze to see what had contributed to her silence. On the nightstand, trapped within a plain wooden frame, was a moment of pure happiness. It had been taken three days before his death when they were all at the diner after work. Angela had been quick to capture the moment as Booth caught a wayward hair that had managed to work itself out of Brennan's pony tail. Brennan was leaning into his hand with a glorious smile on her face.

Angela averted her gaze downward to the object clutched between her friend's hands. He had worn it that night and laughed when Brennan accidentally flicked Ketchup on his shirt. When she was trying to wipe it off Angela had made a joke that for them it was like getting to second base...of course Brennan didn't understand what baseball had to do with any of it. Seeing the piece of clothing mangled in Brennan's fingertips; was just another reminder that Brennan responded to death of a loved one like most people.

"Bren, when was the last time that you ate, or slept?" Brennan only shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"All of us, we were so worried that you had left the country, or worse that something had happened to you." Brennan let out a sigh and finally met Angela's gaze, "Sweetie, where were you going?"

"Guatemala."

"Why didn't you go?"

"I wanted to leave, but I just ended up here." Brennan cast her eyes towards the shirt.

"Sweetie, he would follow you wherever you went."

"Booth's dead, he can't follow anyone." Each syllable was laced with stone, every word definite to the cause of not wanting to care.

"His body may be, but not his soul...that will always be yours." Brennan suddenly flew upwards knocking Angela over.

"STOP IT!"

"Bren-" Angela felt like she had just been struck.

"I hate all of this illogical nonsense. This unscientific garbage about soul mates and love...everyone always talks about the happiness, but no one ever tells you that it is going to hurt...truly hurt. I am sick of it, all of it."

"Bren, you don't mean that. What you feel..."

"I never want to feel this way again... do you hear me! NEVER!"

Angela got up off of the floor and grabbed Brennan by the arms, "Brennan..."

"No, no more of your romantic fairytales in regards to Booth. This is real life, people live and then they die, he is dead...he's gone!" She collapsed to the floor bringing Angela down beside her. Angela wrapped her arms around her inconsolable friend, knowing that there was really nothing she could say that would make this better.

"God, I wish I could take this away for you, make it better."

"You can't; Booth is dead, and he can't come back from that."

"If it was possible Brennan, you have to believe that he would do it for you." Brennan wrapped her arms around Angela, clinging to her, searching for some meaning.

"I don't think it was worth it, Angela."

"What, Sweetie?"

"Letting him in." Grief finally took over fully, and she leaned into Angela's embrace all the more.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours then Angela gently urged her friend to go into the bathroom to have a shower to freshen up. Angela quickly phoned Hodgins and told him that Brennan had been found and that she was going to stay with her. Brennan emerged from the bathroom wearing another one of Booth's shirts and a pair of his boxers; she was still clutching the other shirt. Brennan crawled underneath his sheets and seemed to inhale every ounce of his sent as she did so. Angela curled up beside her and couldn't help thinking that the first time Brennan was finally in Booth's bed and it was without him.

Angela awoke early in the morning to the rays of sun just peaking over the horizon, gently touching her face. She immediately realized that she was alone in the bed, she looked up and found Brennan fully dressed in her own clothes and everything had been cleaned to immaculacy.

"Bren, what are you doing?"

"I can't do this anymore, Angela. I can't...I am leaving."

Angela jumped out of bed and grabbed a hold onto Brennan's retreating figure, "Where? To Guatemala?"

"No, I am going to my apartment, then I am going back to work."

"Sweetie, no one expects you to go back to work, you should..."

"Everywhere I turn there is a memory of us and I can't get away from it, so there is no choice but to ignore it...everything Booth."

"Don't you dare say that! He gave you the most precious gift he could think of, and now you are going to chuck it aside like the rest of the stuff from your apartment. Well, guess what...you can't throw him away and the more you try the worse it will get...I can promise you that."

"You don't know that...everything was fine before Booth and it can be that way again if I could just forget him."

"He won't let you, Bren," Angela pushed Brennan's hair out of her face, then moved her hand until it was over her heart, "It took him so long to get in there Sweetie, don't force him out just because he is physically gone."

"He is dead Angela, there is nothing left."

"Love, that is what is left. He loved you and you loved him." Brennan pushed Angela away. A shroud of ice descended in her eyes, each layer of brick was slowly being built again, as she straightened her back.

"You're wrong about that, because I don't even know what love is." She stood picked up her purse and left the room still clutching his ketchup stained shirt.

_**End of Flashback**_

They sat there, the two people closest to her, contemplating, reeling, and accepting the now shared memory. They both knew what it meant in regards to the woman in the upper level of the building they were now sitting in. Brennan had acted illogically, irrationally, like a woman in...which meant that Booth had imprinted something much more significant on her. She didn't leave, she had stayed. The old Brennan would have been on that flight and would have never looked back, but even while dealing with a devastating loss she managed to stay, in part because of him. The damage had been done however, and for Booth it was the fact that he had managed to break the one part of her that took so long to get back together.

"I broke her heart didn't I, Angela?"

"Yes, you did." Booth put his face in his hands and bent over until his elbows were balanced on the top of his thighs. He felt Angela's hand on his shoulder.

"I can't believe I did that to her. I'm just as bad as her parents."

"No, that is where you are wrong because you at least left her a note. You wanted to tell her. You didn't know that Sweets was going to keep it from her. So you can own about half the guilt, how about that?" He turned his face to look at her.

"There is hope, there always is when Brennan is involved. She has defied everything life has dealt her; she has seen that there is life after you...though rather bleak, and rather cold...she did not completely fall apart. The most important part from what I told you is that she stayed...she didn't run off to another country. She stayed with us, her friends, trying to work through your absence somehow. That is huge, Booth, especially for her."

"Angela, I..." Before he could finish the elevator doors opened and the woman in question stepped out onto the tiled floors. She stopped and her eyes roamed over the scene before her ultimately landing on Booth. Her lips thinned in determination and each stride, each click of her heels signified a purpose.

Angela and Booth watched as she came towards them, with a look that got more determined with each step. Angela leaned in to Booth's side and whispered, "She is either going to slug you again or make out with you...it is hard to tell."

"I'm hoping for the latter." Booth mumbled.

"That makes two of us." Angela managed to retort as Brennan pulled within earshot. She stopped directly in front of him, her face indiscernible.

"Booth, I ..."

"I know, I know...you told me to leave, I just wanted to wait for Angela to get here and to make sure that you were all right."

"I'm fine, but you..."

"...should be going, I know, I know. But you should have these back." Booth handed the box of meaningful trinkets back to her, and then shoved his hands in his pockets.

She looked down at the box and gently lifted the lid.

A mild tug of her lips managed to break through as Angela realized just how much the woman and man before her managed to surprise her.

Items, that's all they were. Moulded pieces of plastic that had no realistic value, yet the act of throwing them out meant that they had meant more to her than anyone could have imagined, so much so that these seeing them again made her heart soar; reminding her of all that was and what could be.

With a heavy sigh Booth tried to move past her, but was stopped. She slid her hand up the front of his chest and rested it gently over his heart. Her other hand gestured Angela to take the box. He turned his head and found that her sapphire eyes danced with some hidden secret, but sparkled with passion as well. Booth gulped. He had gotten used to seeing anger, frustration and fear laced in her eyes, but this reminded him of days past. She then graced him with a partial smile.

"You...you...Sweets isn't Karate chopped into a million pieces somewhere, is he?" Brennan rolled her eyes.

"No, he is still very much alive."

"So did he manage to make you a psychology junky now?"

"I don't know what that means, but psychology is still very much an ill begotten profession...but has its moments of insight."

"Such as?" She moved right in front of him, her hand moved from his heart to his grip his tie. His eyes went even wider and he stumbled back slightly. Booth thought he heard faint squealing along with the faint scurrying of heals, but the world was gently fading away. All he saw was her.

Brennan reached up with her free hand and placed her thumb on his lip flicking it slightly, "The answer is yes, Booth."

"I...I...I didn't ask you anything." He stated, still very much confused and turned on.

"You have one chance to prove to me that this whole dating thing you are so obsessed about is a good idea."

"Bones, are you messing with me?"

Her brows furrowed, "No, I am trying to flirt with you."

"Oh..." His pulse raced as he stepped in closer, boring into her eyes, "Bones, you're serious, aren't you?"

"Booth, will you go out on a date with me?" That time Booth definitely heard a no holds bar squeal coming from across the room. He decided to ignore it, and brought Brennan into a warm embrace making all those 'guy hugs' a distant memory.

"Just so you know if you would have held out a little longer I would have agreed to defy the laws of physics first, but since you insist then yes, I will take _you_ on a date, Bones."

Her laugh filled the J. Edgar Hoover building as he picked her up and swung her around. When her feet finally hit the floor again she beamed up at him clasping her hands in his. Brown searched blue, nothing but certainty filled the gaze though, and for the first time in weeks her quizzical eyes and mind had found and new purpose, some new found hope to cling to.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Well lets transition slightly from the angst to the humour shall we... after this we are moving into the dating and, well, the much needed hanky panky! Well feel free to drop me a review...good or bad. Cheers :D


	5. To Date a Squint

Hello all! I have this story pretty much completely written (except the last two chapters which are almost finished). Oh and I guess I should mention that Melodie is the girl Zack met in the bar in my last story. She actually gave him her number and they have been dating ever since. Thank you to all of you have taken the time to review, fav the story or just read it...your karma will increase for sure ;D I hope you enjoy chapter 5: To Date a Squint

Oh and I don't own Bones, though I do have difficulties accepting this.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So she asked him?" Cam asked while removing a partial liver from the corpse in front of her.

"Yep, I was there, I heard it." Angela stated in a sing-song voice.

"Seeley said he asked her out?" Cam dropped the liver on the scale.

"Male pride's a bitch."

"Well, whoever asked who, Seeley's happier than a nun riding a bike down a cobble stone road."

Angela chuckled at Cam's odd ball analogy, "I think he actually skipped into work today."

"Who skipped?" Hodgins asked as he entered the room with the results from the particulates found underneath the victim's fingernails.

"Booth." Angela and Cam answered in unison.

"Nah, he swaggered in here this morning...men don't skip, we swagger." To prove his point he 'swaggered' around the room.

"Why is Hodgins skipping around the room?" Zack asked as he entered. Hodgins stopped dead in his tracks right next to Zach and playfully slapped him on the back of the head.

"Zack, don't you know a manly swagger when you see one?"

"Yes, maybe we should ask Agent Booth to model it so you know what it looks like as well."

Hodgins mouth hit the floor, "This coming from the kid who took Melodie to Burger King on their first date."

"Oh Zack, you didn't." Angela asked, looking at him in disbelief.

"Yes, in fact I did. She had mentioned on numerous occasions that her favourite food is a cheeseburger, with mustard, cheddar cheese, the bun lightly toasted, with extra pickles. I researched it and statistics show that on average people prefer Burger King Burgers to all other fast food competitors."

"And she enjoyed that?" Cam asked while removing the victim's spleen.

"I think she enjoyed herself. She displayed a few of the typical female signs of enjoyment in regards to a male's company."

"Typical female signs?" Angela asked still in her disbelieving state.

"Yes, Hodgins instructed me..."

"N..n...no, no, I didn't..." Hodgins started to panic at what was to come.

"Yes you did. You stated that women display physical gestures indicating that they are enjoying themselves and ready for mating."

"Whoa...I did not say _mate_, I said _sex_ and I...do you have to remember everything I tell you?!"

"You are constantly reminding me that I need to pay more attention to your lectures on pleasuring women so I can get -"

"Ok, that's enough out of..."

"No, let him finish, because I am finding this very interesting Dr. Hodgins."

"Yes, do tell Zack." Angela stated as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Hodgins said that when a woman is enjoying herself and wants to initiate the act of sex she will, for example, excuse herself to the ladies room and undue the top button of her shirt revealing her cleavage."

"Dear God..." Hodgins started to back towards the exit.

"He mentioned that, you, in particular Angela, run your foot up Hodgins' leg in a restaurant until you reach his groin..."

"Zack!"

"Hodgins!"

"Angela I...I was only trying to help him and..." She crossed her arms and started to tap her foot while pursing her lips tightly, "I am such an ass."

"That almost covers it." Angela stated as she turned towards Zack, "Sweetie, do not _ever_ repeat that again, do I make myself clear." Zack nodded.

"So...Zackaroni, are you and Mel doing well then?" Cam asked trying to refocus the energy in the room.

"Actually she prefers to be called Odie, which is her nick name for Melodie."

"Yeah, I think I caught that part." Cam responded dryly.

"... and yes, we have entered the next stage of our relationship."

"You mean you two..." Hodgins scooted over and slapped Zack hard on the shoulder, "My teachings have paid off! Even with the Burger King debacle you still manage to..."

"We did not have sexual intercourse Hodgins, if that is what you were implying. Odie is a devout Catholic, she does not believe in pre-marital sex."

"What are the odds that you would find a Catholic, who enjoys Burger King, and who totally is into you?"

"One in-"

"Rhetorical, that was a rhetorical question." Hodgins stated.

"Well I think it is sweet." Angela stated ruffling Zack's hair.

"So where are you taking _Odie_ the next time?" Cam asked.

"She is working tonight, but tomorrow she has decided to take me to a karaoke bar. She seems to enjoy my vocal abilities, though I don't remember ever actually singing in her presence before."

"Well, let's just say you can sing a rousing rendition of Jesus Christ Superstar when you drink something other than Shirley Temples. But don't worry Zack you are still King of the bar."

"Speaking of dating...has Booth decided where he is taking her yet?" Cam segued.

"I don't know, and neither does Brennan... oh he should take her to that new restaurant on 12th street, the food there is to die for and it will give me an excuse to take her shopping."

"That may be a bit pricey for Booth. He should take her to that Italian restaurant, the one we all went to a couple months back. She mentioned that he liked the food."

"I think Agent Booth should take Dr. Brennan to..."

"If you say Burger King I am taking back your King of the Bar title."

"No, I think he should take her to the Diner."

"Oh Zack, that's a nice thought, but I think their first date should be something a little more fancy."

"But they like the Diner."

"No, no Dr. B and Booth need to go to that jazz bar that has just opened. The dimly lit atmosphere and the alcohol might help them to..."

"To help us to do what Dr. Hodgins?" Brennan asked from the doorway of the exam room.

"To ah, help you have a...uh..." A look of plea swung Angela's way.

"Good time Sweetie."

"Yes, a good time Dr. Brennan."

"I fail to see how the location of my date with Booth is at all pertinent to the investigation."

"It's not, but we all just want to you to have a good time, that's all." Angela stated as she walked over to Brennan and hugged her.

"That is the third time you have embraced me today."

"I am just so happy for you," tears started to well and a couple spilled over Angela's eyes.

"Why is Angela crying?" Zack asked as his clouded in confusion, "Is it time for her menstrual..."

"ZACK!"

"HODGINS!"

"But, you stated that all women..." Hodgins grabbed Zack by the front of his lab coat and dragged him out of the room before he could do anymore damage.

"I swear that man is more of a girl when it comes to gossip than I am." Angela stated as she laughed slightly while wiping the last of her tears away.

"You have been rather emotional of late Angela, are you sure everything is alright?" Brennan asked.

"Yes, yes everything is fine. Now, has Booth told you where he is taking you?"

"He hasn't said anything yet. I think he wants it to be a surprise, though I really don't see the reason for all the secrecy."

"Dr. Brennan, let Seeley have this, I know that the actual act of dating means more to him than it may to you."

"I do find the whole act of dating rather pointless, but Booth has expressed the need for it, and it will give me an opportunity to observe..."

"Stop right there," Angela raised her hand, "Your date with Booth is not an anthropological study. It is about you connecting with him."

"I am well aware. Dr. Sweets talked with me at length about the subject of dating in our session and what it would mean for Booth and me."

"You know that almost makes up for his whole list stunt. Is that why you agreed to the date?"

"No, I made a rational decision to go forward with my relationship with Booth instead of remaining stagnant. Anthropologically speaking I am embracing change."

"Uh, huh, and maybe following your heart as well?"

Brennan just smiled slightly as she walked over to Cam to ask when she would be able to have the Bones of the victim.

"So, where is Seeley anyways?"

"Booth is..."

"Right here." The women of the room turned to see Booth standing in the doorway with a file folder in his hand, looking very dapper. In the distance they all could a faint yell of "That is exactly how I was demonstrating a swagger Zack."

"Is that..."

"Yes, the signed confession of one very abusive boyfriend." Brennan snatched the folder from his hand and buried her nose in it. Booth looked wistful as he was gazing at her.

"Well, I still would like the factual evidence as well...I am going to see if Hodgins has any more results yet." And with that she left the room, oblivious to the effect her mere presence had on her partner. Booth watched her walk away, and when he finally turned his attention to the other two women in the room he was met with knowing smiles.

"So, do you know where you are taking her yet?" Angela asked as her smile widened.

"Yes, I have everything planned." Angela squealed slightly as she clasped her hands together.

"Congratulations Seeley, this has been a long time coming." Cam stated while taking samples of the stomach contents.

"Don't call me Seeley, Camille, and thank you."

"So _where_ are you taking her."

"Oh, no. I'm not telling you, any of you. I do not need all of you crowding the restaurant, spying on us."

"We wouldn't do that." Angela stated as she plastered the 'I'm innocent" look on her face.

"Right."

"But how will I know how to dress her if you don't tell me?"

"Bones is perfectly capable of dressing herself," he gave a pregnant pause, "But a little bit elegant would be proper for this occasion."

"Will do Booth, and this will give me a chance to prepare her for the night."

"She will be fine, everything will go great."

"I am sure she will be fine, but will you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Booth, you have never dated a squint before, take it from me...it is an experience."

"Oh come on..."

"No, I am serious. Hodgins brings up the weirdest science stuff about aliens, or bugs at the oddest moments. I mean you really do not want to know about the latest bugs he has found when you are trying to eat breakfast." She chuckled at the memory though, she would always remember that particular morning.

"I am used to Brennan's sciency talk."

"Ok, how about the other stuff, like typical girly date stuff that is completely lost on her."

"Angela has a point there...Dr. Brennan is not like most women."

"That's one of the reasons why I love her."

"Awe...but seriously Booth. All the things that made your other girlfriends swoon, no offense Cam..."

"None taken..."

"...will seem trivial to Brennan."

"What? No."

"Once upon a time fancy dinners, and moonlight walks may have worked on me, but I somehow don't see Dr. Brennan finding it all that entertaining."

"You don't know that."

"You two are dating now, the context of your relationship has changed. Maybe for tonight, you could just tone down the Alpha male tendencies down a bit. So she feels a little more...in control." Angela stated, but Booth didn't look convinced.

"This is a big gesture on Dr. Brennan's part Seeley; meeting her half way might make things go smoother."

"What makes you think things won't go smoothly? Did she say something?"

"No, no, she, in her own Brennan way, is really looking forward to it. Look, take it from me, dating a Squint is not a walk in the park. Not that I would change a thing...it just takes some getting used to."

"Ok, ok...I will tone down the Neanderthal tendencies, as Bones calls them, and try to let her take the lead." He grumbled slightly and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, now it won't be that hard...I promise she will be so drop dead gorgeous you won't be able to leave the apartment." A boyish and slightly impish smile graced his face as his gaze drifted to the floor as he pictured Brennan in a gorgeous dress, and him undressing her.

"Oh brother. He'll be incoherent for at least ten minutes now." Cam retorted, as she snapped her gloves off of her hands.

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"So do you understand Zack?"

"Yes, our conversations are to remain private between the two of us, and are not to be used in the form of evidence towards my sexual endeavours, or explanation of them."

"Very good."

"If that is the case, then your blanket statements about women might be completely one sided. Angela and Dr. Saroyan did not seem to agree with you."

"Women are mysterious creatures, you need to spend years studying them, learning their habits, and only then can you actually start to understand them."

"So you think I should observe women in general to help my relationship with Odie?"

"No! No, no, no. I do not what you to do that. People tend to see that as stalking...so no. Just follow my teachings and you will do just fine."

"Dr. Hodgins, do you have the results yet on the particulates that were found in her hair?" Brennan stated as she stopped by Hodgins' desk.

"Ah, not yet, just give me a few minutes and I will." Hodgins stated while turning to his computer screen, "So... I hear you finally decided to date the G-man."

"Yes, even though it really isn't necessary."

"Oh I don't know...there are some benefits. I get to see Angela all dressed up, looking extra gorgeous, and get to treat her to something special."

"Objectively speaking Dr. Brennan, dating emerged in the early 20th century by upper class educated women who did not want their reputation tarnished by being seen in public with a man. So courtship and subsequently its rituals have a basis in most cultures and change with the times they are in."

"So, what you are saying is that this is a natural process and I should stop fighting it, even though it has no real logical bearing."

"It seems that way yes."

"Dr. B. I may be over stepping here, but maybe you should let Booth, well...how can I put this...display his typical manly gestures while on your date."

"You mean his Alpha male tendencies."

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"It's just...I know that it is not easy to date people like us."

"Like us?" Zack asked not following Hodgins train of thought.

"You know, people who spend more time in the lab than in the real world."

"Ah people with higher levels of intelligence in the field of academia." Zack stated, and Brennan nodded at the clarification.

"I mean the other day I made Angela breakfast and I started talking about the new larvae I was cultivating, and she turned really green and excused herself. She didn't even eat the food when she came back. That can't be easy, but she puts up with it."

"Angela loves you Hodgins, I doubt she sees it as a hardship."

Hodgins was taken aback by the statement, "Thank you."

"I was stating a fact, but you're welcome."

Hodgins smiled because she had just proven his point, "Squints like us tend to see things in a straight forward fashion and that tends to get misinterpreted. So, if you allow Booth to be the typical male on the date that he would feel more at ease."

"So what you're saying is that if I allow Booth to display these archaic traditions involving manhood this date would go better?"

"Yes and talk about sports."

"Sports?"

"Talking about peoples interests is customary in a dating situation. Odie has told me that I must improve my conversational skills and discuss mundane things that happen in life."

"Such as?"

"Movies, books, television programs."

"You don't even own a TV?" Hodgins stated.

"Yes, that does present a problem, doesn't it?" Zack asked while scrunching his face slightly.

"So, I should research sporting events and discuss them on our date."

"It wouldn't hurt." Hodgins replied.

"Well, I suppose letting a few gestures, however unnecessary, and conversing on a few mundane topics would be feasible."

"You see Dr. Brennan that is what this is all about...compromise. To be in a relationship is all about compromise."

"I never found any real logic in that. Compromising just means two people never really get what they want."

"Or...you find something better that you never dreamed possible." Brennan's mouth twitched slightly because she was compromising by going out with Booth, and she was looking forward to spending time with him.

"Point taken."

"Oh and here are the results from the particulates found in the victim's hair. They match the same ones found in the hatchet in her boyfriend's car."

"Booth already got the signed confession, but now we know for sure that the boyfriend murdered her." She turned and left the platform.

"Dr. Brennan displays all the signs that she wants to..."

"I swear Zack if you say mating again I am going to smack you, hard."

"Well, she does according to your teachings."

"I have created a monster!" Hodgins chuckled, "Come on Zack lets go race some bugs."

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After his conversation with Angela and Cam, Booth had found himself gravitating towards Bones' office. It was empty, but the couch looked too inviting to pass up. He groaned slightly as he placed his feet up on the opposite end of the couch. He closed his eyes, but smiled at the picture that displayed in his mind.

It wasn't anything special, just the two of them sitting in her apartment eating her delicious Mac and Cheese. They were in front of her TV, that he helped pick out, watching classic black and white movies. Their conversation wasn't anything in particular, but he knew that he would be laughing at her viewpoint of something. It was a beautiful image, simple yet was so inviting. The only problem being, that she deserved more than that.

He had planned it perfectly: the location, his attire, travel, and well, everything. He didn't want her to worry about anything for one night. He could give that too her, he wanted to sweep her of her feet. She deserved the world, no she deserved the universe. This date had to be perfect, so she would have a lasting memory.

He was brought out of his own thoughts by the warmth of her hand on his cheek, "Are you sleeping?"

"Yes." That got him a poke in the side. He chuckled as he opened his eyes to find hers twinkled with merriment.

"You had a smile on your face. What were you thinking about?"

"You."

Her cheeks went the faintest tinge of pink, "Oh, you mean a sex dream."

"Bones!"

"What? I have been having them quite often."

"With me as the main attraction I hope."

"Who else would be in them?" She said it so matter-of-factly that his heart swelled. He swung his legs over and quickly stood up pulling her with him. Inches apart, their breath mingled as he spoke.

"Sometimes you say the most amazingly romantic things and you don't even know it."

"That's a good thing right?"

"The best." He leaned down placing his lips to hers. She brought her hands up looping them around his neck. They tantalized, tortured, and titillated each other until the broke apart slightly for air.

"You know Angela has stated that having sex at the workplace can be very arousing and very exciting." She stated as she fiddled with his lapels.

"Bones..."

"She says that it is the act of doing something that is considered socially inappropriate can be sexually stimulating."

"You don't say." He started to kiss her lips again, and then placed a few down the side of her neck before meeting her gaze again.

"I think she might be right." She whispered as she ran her hands up his chest then placed them behind his neck again, moving her fingers through the back of his hair. She leaned to the side, her mouth in close proximity to the side of his ear. She took his ear lobe between her teeth flicking it slightly with the tip of her tongue.

"She also said that I should always remind you when I am not wearing any underwear." She chuckled softly as she felt his whole body stiffen slightly.

"Ooooh, you're killing me Bones." She pulled back to be met with his lust filled gaze.

"So, where are you taking me on our date?"

"Not telling. I want it to be a surprise."

"You know it doesn't have to be anyplace expensive, or extravagant. I believe I would be happy anyplace that you are."

"There you go again with your romantic lines. Wow, I must be rubbing off on you."

"Booth..."

"Tonight will be perfect, just relax and enjoy yourself."

"Ok."

"Ok? What no lecture on how dating is an archaic ritual?"

"No."

"No lecture on how dating is pointless and we don't really need to do it?"

She shook her head.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, Booth. I trust you know what you are doing, so I will leave you to it." She stated, with the faintest strained tone.

Did he just hear right? She wasn't even going to put up an argument? He almost wished she had; their banter had always been a turn on for him, but this complacency was slightly off putting.

"Bones are you sure you are alright? I mean if you want to go somewhere else, or choose the place yourself I would be fine with it." His vision entered his mind once again.

"No, no. Just tell me what time to be ready for."

"I was planning on picking you up at six, but..."

"That sounds great!" She smiled. He looked at her and wondered how she could smile so genuinely yet strained at the same time. She was suppressing something. He had no idea what, but it would have to wait.

"Sweetie! Dresses are you calling your name."

"Dresses are inanimate objects that cannot ..."

"I am going to get my purse...Booth get a final grope in because I am taking her when I get back."

"Angela..." he started, but she had already left doorway as quickly as she entered it.

"Well I guess a new dress is warranted, isn't it? I do not usually buy a new outfit, but that is the typical female thing to do for a date right?"

"Well, yes, I guess," _But you're not typical_, "Bones, you would look beautiful in anything." She leaned in for one final kiss, but the gently tapping of a high heeled shoe killed the mood slightly.

"See you later Bones." He squeezed her hands before acquiescing her to Angela.

Brennan was halfway out the door when she stopped and turned slightly, "Don't worry Booth; we are going to knock it out of the ice tonight." And with that, the two women left.

A funny feeling started to quell in his gut as he watched her leave the room. He couldn't help but wonder if the simplicity of his vision would have sufficed for a first date. He shook his head; it was going to be perfect, everything was going to be fine. Dating a Squint couldn't possibly be that different. He was just about to leave when her words took register.

_Did she just try and use a sports metaphor?_ Now he was worried.

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So the date is coming up next, well the next three chapters actually, and well we'll see how well 'perfection' works for Booth.;D Well, review and let me know what you think...if you think it sucks, hey let me know, but try and write more than "this sucks"...tell my why you think that way so I can improve. Cheers :D


	6. Preparation for Perfection

Thank you so much for all of your reviews thus far...*permanent hanger face*. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as all of you enjoyed the last one. Please enjoy chapter 6: Preparation for Perfection.

What do you get them most awesome beta ever known? I only ask because MoonlightGardenias is so fabulous that I am going to have to better than a pony (I mean how do you top a pony?!...two ponies)

Oh and I don't own Bones *insert witty comment about me not owning Bones here*

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"Sweetie? Are you ok in there?"

"I am in the same state that I was in five minutes ago when you asked me that question."

Angela rolled her eyes, "So does it fit?"

"Yes."

"Then get your hot little ass out here...and don't think I can't hear you sighing from this side of the door." Angela added, knowing that Brennan was struggling.

Brennan stood and stared at herself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous, and she was, overall, very satisfied with her appearance, but something felt a little off. All this prepping, all this pomp for one night just did not make any sense. She knew that Booth was thrilled, and seeing him that giddy had placed a smile on her face, but she ever since she had agreed to date him she had pictured their date a little differently.

She thought she would cook his favourite Mac and Cheese dish for him, and then they would just watch a movie. She rarely watched movies, so they could watch old black and whites, or some of his favourites. It would be just the two of them, in their comfy attire, rather than dressing up to be spectacles on display. The simplicity of her perfect date was now being overshadowed by something else.

She had not dated in the same capacity as most women have done in their lifetimes. She valued her work above her social life, and this has always suited her. She was not adept enough in social situations whereas Booth seemed to master it. He could read people, know how to comfort them, interact with them, but Brennan knew she did not have that talent. She tried to learn and master the technique, but it was not inherent within her.

Brennan knew that Booth had something she didn't, he would be better suited for the whole dating environment than she was. She did not know how to have mundane social conversations, or to even know what conversations were allowed. They had always discussed a wide variety of topics, but she was certain that on a date people generally stayed away from murder, death, bones, and anything that would be uncouth in nature. Was it different for them? Could it be different for them?

The murky waters of emotion and irrational thought processes started to rear their ugly heads again. There was no real formula for dating, and no real scientific experiment that could be conducted within the confines of her lab that could tell her how all this would end, or more importantly, how she would be able to take care of his heart, in the metaphorical sense that is.

Booth was in love with her, and according to Sweets, this meant that she had a responsibility to take care of that love. The problem was that she had never been responsible to someone like that before; she had never been a source of someone's happiness for a very long time, not since she was a little girl.

Brennan wanted this date to go well for him, so he could be happy, but in the process she was losing her objectivity and maybe a bit of herself. The more she entered into Booth's world, the more she felt that her scientific outlook on relationships was no longer a comfort. She knew deep down Booth was now part of the reason why she was happy. If Sweets was right and dating was a way to test a relationship, did it mean that if it went wrong then the relationship should be ended? Was all of this really worth it?

She looked at the mirror again. Dating was an antiquated ritual, it made no real logical sense, but being in a relationship was about compromise. She would do this for him...she just had to focus on the task at hand. Break the date into its component parts and analyze...

"Stop over analyzing, Brennan, and get out here."

She sighed and opened the door, and what awaited her was a squeal.

"Oh Sweetie...there is a high chance that I outdid myself this time."

Brennan's eyes scoured the apartment, "Booth isn't here yet?"

"Oh, he is just over analyzing on the other side of your front door."

"You mean he is just standing there?" Angela ran over to look through the peep hole again.

"Yes, but he looks hot doing it. He is in a tux and everything...he is so taking you someplace fancy."

"My attire is appropriate then." Brennan asked as she spotted a news paper on the table. She had almost forgotten all about the topic of sports, so she quickly flipped to the sport section, trying to make sense of all the sports jargon and highlights.

"Don't worry, you are dressed perfectly...I should know...I dressed you." Her friend replied with a mild eye roll and then returned back to her paper.

"Bren, your hunk is on the other side of that door and you are reading the news paper?"

"Yes, I need to do some research for..."

"Oh no...we talked about this, no anthropological study tonight..."

"But I need to read the sports section..."

"Is this some weird nervous thing? You don't even like sports."

"But Booth does."

It finally dawned on Angela on what was happening, "Dating is not that big of deal and..."

"I am not very proficient at it. I have dated in the past, but not this kind of dating with this type of emotional investment. There are obvious expectations that I may not be able to fulfill."

"What exactly aren't you good at?"

"I have been told that while I am very skilful at sexual intercourse, my conversational skills are severely lacking and science oriented."

"Oh...that's not too bad...just talk about his family, work, well not so much about work...oh! Ask him about Parker...Booth loves talking about him."

"Parker? I haven't interacted much with him, what do I ask?"

"About his school, what he likes...I mean Parker will be a big part of your life too, so anything Parker is a good topic."

"Ok, I can do that." _Topics to bring up on the date include the following: family, Parker, and sports. _

"Ok, let's quickly go through the checklist again."

"No, we already went through it once."

"Humour me, Sweetie." Brennan exhaled, puffing out her lips and cheeks slightly, "Sexy, dark blue laced, push 'em up to the rafters bra with a thong to match?"

"Check, and I still cannot believe I bought ten sets of lingerie today."

"You were seriously lacking in that department."

"I never saw the need. Why spend money on special bras and undergarments when the ultimate goal is to be naked."

"Well, I am sure Booth will find a use for them." Angela responded with an eyebrow wiggle.

"Are you implying that Booth is cross dresser?"

"Oh, Sweetie, you are so completely unaware of how hilarious you are." She smiled contently at her friend, who just shrugged her shoulders.

"Ok, ok...hair and makeup perfectly coiffed?"

"Check."

"Shaved your legs?"

"You should know, you shoved the razor in my hand."

"I didn't hear a check." Angela teased.

"Check."

"Smokin' hot, deep blue, thigh high, low in the front, low in the back dress that will have your man man take you here right on this counter."

"Check."

"Killer stiletto shoes that make your legs reach the high heavens."

"Yes...I mean check. They are horribly uncomfortable though." Brennan commented as she shifted slightly from one foot to another.

"Pain is beauty."

"I might not be able to walk after this."

"That's ok, Booth can carry you around...he would love that." Brennan started to fidget slightly with her fingers and scrunched her face slightly.

Angela walked over and enveloped Brennan's fidgeting fingers in her hands, "Everything will be fine."

"I know. I'm just secreting adrenaline because this is a new situation and I am very sexually attracted to Booth, so I am also anticipating having sexual intercourse with him as well."

"Well, that's perfectly natural. I did the same thing on my first date with Hodgins." Angela smiled at the memory.

"Why was that date so memorable for you? Aside from it being your first date?"

"Oh, I guess it was because it was just me and him, and that swing set. It was the fact that he listened to my conversations and things I said, and he just followed his heart. Why do you ask?"

Brennan looked down at her attire and then at Angela again, "I guess I just thought about our first date a little differently."

"You actually thought about what your date would be like?" Angela's eyes went wide in surprise.

"Yes, after accepting the reality that it was going to happen, I started to wonder what I would like."

"And this isn't it?"

"Well, it has one of the major components, Booth."

Angela smiled, "Did you mention this to him?"

"No, because you and Cam said that I should let him take that lead on this and..."

"That was because we thought you didn't really care. I thought you just wanted to get it over with."

"I do, I just...being with Booth makes me see the world around me a little differently."

Angela gazed at her friend, seeing how truly vulnerable she was. This was huge for Brennan, and Angela could see that Brennan was far more emotionally invested in this situation than Angela could have ever imagined. She gazed upon her friend and realized that Brennan needed to gain some equal footing in regards to Booth.

"Sweetie, have you told him yet?"

"Told him what?"

"Have you actually said those three little words that we all like hearing from time to time?"

"I am not following..."

"Those three little words that convey the deepest desires of your heart, and that are plastered everywhere on Valentine's Day?"

"Oh... no I haven't."

"Why not?"

"They are just words, Angela."

"How did it feel when he said them to you?"

"I was shocked. At the time I was only starting to view Booth as more than just a partner, so I was not expecting him to say them."

"What about the second time?"

"He said it to me as he was chasing me down the street after I took his SUV." Angela laughed.

"And the last time?"

"He says it so casually now; every time we talk on the phone he ends the conversation with them."

"Sweetie, Booth says it so casually because he has spent about three and a half years saying them in his head. Now he gets to verbalize them, and it makes him feel wonderful. You know...I bet if you said those three little words, you would feel better."

"I feel fine."

"You would feel that you have equal footing in this relationship." Brennan's eyes went wide, she never expected Angela to understand.

"If I know how I feel, then it really doesn't matter."

"Yes it does, because Booth is the type of person who needs to hear those words from time to time. I don't think he has heard them enough or at all in his past relationships."

"I am not being fair to him, am I?"

"Honestly, he probably would be fine with not hearing you say it for the rest of his life; just as long as he could spend his life with you, but I think that you are just as emotionally invested in this relationship as he is. You should tell him. It is not about being fair, it is about reaching deep down and finding that your heart can have more than one home...and one of those homes is with him."

"A person would die if their heart was extracted..."

"Metaphorical heart, Sweetie."

"Oh." Brennan paused then took the time to really look into her friends' eyes. Here was a woman who was there for her in every aspect of her life, before there even was a Booth, and she never asked for anything in return. Brennan did not know how, but along the way Angela had become much more than a friend.

"You're very good at that, you know?"

"At what?"

"You are exceedingly empathetic, and you are good with people...good with me."

"That is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. Thank you."

"I should be thanking you, for everything that you have done." Brennan walked over to Angela and awkwardly brought her into an embrace. Once Brennan started to relax she whispered those three little words in Angela's ear.

Angela pulled back, shocked that she actually heard those words, "I..."

"Is it ok that my metaphorical heart has a home with you too, right? I mean I don't care for you in the same way as Booth, not that you aren't physically attractive, I just don't desire you sexually..."

"I get it, Sweetie ..."

"But I would be just as upset if something happened to you. Though we are not biologically related, I do believe that our relationship could be seen as sisterly in some cultures."

Angela brought her dearest friend into her arms for another embrace, "You are more empathetic than you give yourself credit for...and yes I will take care of your heart and so will Booth if you will let him." They pulled apart and Brennan managed to look at Angela's watch.

"We are going to be late, he said that the reservation was for seven and it is already six thirty."

"Ok, ok...I am leaving and I will push him in here." Angela caught the worried expression settling on Brennan's face, "He is just nervous, he wants this night to be perfect for you."

"There are too many variables for this situation to attain that status."

"That's the spirit." Angela dead-panned, "Ok, love you and have fun...and for God sakes Bren, do everything I _would_ do and more. In fact here," Angela dug in her purse and pulled a couple of strings of different sized condoms.

"Angela!"

"What? Not enough?" She went searching in her purse for more, "I didn't know what size to get, but I am guessing that Booth is definitely towards the, uh, _large _end."

"I have enough prophylactics of my own, and I am on birth control."

"Not always fool-proof, but keep them anyway."

_Knock, Knock._

"He's here!" Angela jumped up and down slightly.

"We already knew that."

"Well, answer it...oh no wait, let me get my camera."

"No pictures."

"But..."

"Angela..." Angela placed the camera down, but gave no verbal agreement. Brennan reached for the door handle, her hand shook slightly_. It is just Booth, calm down_. She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders before she opened the door.

Two sets of breaths hitched, two sets of eyes roamed over each other's bodies, taking in the delicious sites that were presented before them.

She had seen him in a tux before, but it was the intention that it was for her benefit that made her pulse race. Dapper, handsome, robust...these words didn't quite cover what Seeley Booth looked like at this moment in time.

His gaze roamed down her body to the tips of her toes sticking out of her high-heeled shoes, all the way to the top of her head. Her face was flawless, her dress was exquisite, and those legs..._Good Lord have mercy._

_Click, click, click._

"Angela!" Booth and Brennan yelled at the same time.

"Don't worry; I will get each of you copies, or put them on banners and hang them in the Jeffersonian."

"Don't you even think..." Booth started.

"Bye, love you." She scurried out of the apartment.

"She probably won't make them that big." Brennan stated.

"That is so not the point." His gaze returned to her, suddenly realizing that they were alone.

They stood there left like nervous teenagers, expectations were flying, and so were their rampant sexual desires. Booth started to run his hands on the back of his neck, as she started to fiddle with her hands. He gazed over at the counter and saw a pile of condoms.

"Bones!"

"What?"

"What exactly do you have planned for after our date?" Brennan gaze followed his towards the counter.

"Oh, Angela got a little carried away....besides with our physical stamina and competitive nature we may need them." His eyes flew to hers. "It's not like I laid out whips and chains, Booth...or bits and chaps."

"Oh, you had to bring that up didn't you?" She laughed and smacked his ass, "What has gotten into you?"

"I thought it was obvious. I desire you sexually." Her eyes clouded over with a carnal shroud. It was instant, rampant; it was a complete turn on.

"Bones...I..."

"What? Do you not desire me in the same way?" She started to glide towards him.

_Hell yes!_

He forcefully brought her between him and the counter. His eyes roamed her body, taking in what was displayed before him. The creamy swells of her breasts pushed against his chest as the neck line of her dress seemed to plunge deeper.

His hands started to roam where his eyes couldn't quite see. They ended up at her hips, pulling up slightly. She took the hint and she jumped up until her posterior was on the counter and her legs were now accessible.

His hand ran all the way down her freshly shaven leg, then travelled back up, staying underneath the fabric this time. His hand expanded on her the outside of her thigh, and his lips finally found the way to the crook of her neck.

"You are too sexy for your own good. "

"I know." She whispered. He chuckled at her straight forward answer.

He left the crook of her neck and gazed in her eyes, "You are absolutely beautiful."

"You look pretty good yourself." She trailed her fingers down the front of his dress shirt, then back up again until he reached his bow tie. She straightened it slightly, before resigning her hands on his lapels.

Both hands were now trying to lift up the dress and it was almost all the way up to her hips until he felt the lace of her thong. He looped his fingers in it as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Their lips smashed together, and she pulled herself closer by placing her hands around his next.

Minutes or maybe even hours passed, and he was slowly losing his composure completely. He ripped away from her mouth, breathing heavily.

"Why did you stop?"

"If we don't leave now, we won't be able to."

"Fine with me." She stated, as his hand found its way to her cheek, rubbing it slightly with his thumb.

"I want you to enjoy the date tonight, Temperance."

"I will try my best, Booth."

He smiled slightly, "Are you ready to go?"

"I need you to remove your hands from underneath my dress so I can get down, then yes I am." He groaned as he relinquished his hands and she reluctantly pulled out of his embrace, and hopped off the counter. She fixed her dress then grabbed her dress coat and purse.

As he followed her out of the door, placing his hand on her lower back, he could almost feel that he could obtain it. All the preparations, everything was building up to this: true perfection.

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So Brennan said those three little words to someone and it wasn't to Booth first...hmmm gotta let me know what you think about that one. So the 'perfect' date will be split into two parts over the next two chapters. Their date will be in true Brennan and Booth fashion, but in the end in their own way they will figure things out. See that button, the one pretty much right beneath this story...yeah that is call a review button. Abuse it, hit it again and again...go nuts and when you do write some nice words down as well. Cheers :D


	7. The 'Perfect' Date Part I

Ah, life is good...a new season of Bones has started which has left a ridiculous smile on my face. You know what else makes me grin like an idiot...reviews. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed my story!! That being said, here is the next chapter of my story. It has been separated into two chapters because I just could not fit it all in one. I will upload the next chapter in the next couple of days or so. I hope you enjoy chapter 7: The 'Perfect' Date Part I.

Oh and blah blah blah I don't own Bones.

A special thanks to MoonlightGardenias, who takes the time out of her very busy schedule to edit my lowly fanfic. Someday I hope to return the favor :D

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Perfection.

It's just a noun.

To some it could mean to obtain the highest attainable standard possible.

To others it could mean a state in with the something is as good as it possibly can be.

To Seeley Booth it meant much, much more.

He only had a few moments in his life where he thought he had obtained it. Two in particular stuck out in his mind.

Holding his precious little baby boy in his hands for the first time, counting the number of toes and fingers, and looking into those little eyes, could only be described as moment of pure perfection.

The second was when he and Bones kissed at the diner. Every touch, every sensation, and those three little words he had been waiting so long to convey: all contributed to that moment of perfection.

And that was the thing about perfection that Booth did not quite remember on that night, sitting in the passenger's side of the SUV, a tampon in each of his nostrils, having his now shoeless and soaked date drive him home. Perfection can only be a brief moment in time, but it is what you do after the moment that really matters.

__________Earlier that evening.....______________

They made their way to his jet black SUV, both still reeling from what had almost transpired. Her scent had seeped into his nostrils, causing Booth to mentally kick himself for letting it get that far. He wanted her then and there on that counter, but he also wanted her to experience the emotional aspect of dating more. He felt the gentle swaying of her back muscles underneath his hand causing him to remember the way her muscles felt only moments before... yeah he was a hero, who was in need of a cold shower.

Brennan was having a difficult time organizing her thoughts as they walked towards the SUV. Between her shoes, all the odd ball team names floating around in her head and the fact that Booth's hand had found its way to the small of her back, she was happy she was still upright. She had wanted him then and there in her kitchen, but this whole dating thing had got in the way.

Once again Booth had resolved the whole situation back to the emotional, leaving the physical aspect of their relationship to some vague point in the future. If she could just make it through this date, she knew that things were bound to get better.

As they approached the SUV door they both reached the door handle at the same time, and then both recoiled.

_Meet her half-way._

_Let him display his Alpha-male tendencies._

Their eyes locked as the various words of wisdom started to play through their minds and they both took a small step back, then neither of them budged.

Brennan clasped her hands on her purse and Booth shoved his hands at his sides. Both looked on in expectancy. He made the eye gesture for her to open the door, and she looked at him with a confused expression. He added a head bob in the direction of the door with the eye gesture the second time. She started to squint at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Aren't you going to get the door, Booth?"

"Yes I was...wait...you want me to get the door?"

_Not particularly_, "Yes."

"But..."

"Is it not customary on a date for the male to open the door?"

"Well yes..."

"Then I fail to see why you are stalling."

He started to rub the back of his head in confusion, "I mean I know you are perfectly capable, but..."

"I am capable."

"Then do you want to open it?"

"Do you want me to want to open it?"

"Huh?" Booth was at a loss. Where was the lecture on how she was independent and perfectly capable? She was just staring at him clenching her teeth slightly with a smile, while shifting slightly from one foot to another.

Brennan knew that in order for this date to be successful she had to suppress her normal tendencies, as per everyone's advice. She decided that he was having a little difficulty grasping the situation, so she grabbed his hand and shoved it on the handle; the not so subtle hint was taken. He pulled the door open and she clamoured in with a little less grace than intended.

"Thank you."

"No...uh...problem."

Brennan watched him close her door and walk around the front of the SUV shaking his head slightly. Did she do the right thing? He usually opened the door for her, but maybe she should have opened the door because he asked her to. She shook her head, trying to make sense of the transaction.

_Shouldn't he be happy that I didn't get the door? _

He got in the driver's side, slightly in shock at her behaviour. He honestly never thought he would live to see the day that Dr. Temperance Brennan would actually want him to perform the Neanderthal like tendencies. She wasn't making this meeting her halfway aspect of the date easy. He started the engine, then turned it off, and then repeated the process once more.

"Is there something wrong with the engine?"

_Damn Angela and Cam! _"No."

"Have you forgotten that you need to leave the key in the turned on position for the engine to stay running?"

He glared at her slightly, "I know how to start a vehicle Bones, it's just...do you, um," _God I cannot believe I am doing this,_ "Do you want to drive?"

She openly gawked at him, "What did you say?"

"Oh God, don't make me repeat it."

"You actually want me to drive?"

_Christ no! _"Yes, yes I do."

"You never let me drive."

"I know that," he stated through clenched teeth, "but do you want to?"

"Yes, of course I do!" She beamed at him and swung her door open.

_Let him display his Alpha-male tendencies._

She stopped and swung her door back shut and turned to a confused looking Booth.

"What are you doing?"

"I think you should drive."

_What the hell?_ "Now you are refusing to drive?!"

"Booth isn't it customary for the male to drive the female in dating situations?"

"I know what to do on a date Bones."

"I think you might be having some difficulty because..."

He started the engine and roared in unnecessarily, "Happy now?"

_No_, "Yes. Thank you." He put it into gear and pulled out into traffic.

Brennan was never good at reading people, but she did know Booth and he was definitely acting strangely. He never asked her if she wanted to drive before, usually she always had to ask, or steal the keys and hijack the SUV. She frowned slightly; she would probably never get to drive again.

The silence was driving him slightly batty. He didn't know what to say to her, and she had this slightly pained expression and kept shifting in her feet. She didn't seem to be enjoying herself. God, why didn't she fight to drive? Hell, she stole his keys when they first kissed. So that begged the question: why didn't she ask him to drive in the first place?

He decided to push this to the back of his mind. They were on their first date, and though a little rocky, it wasn't a complete disaster yet.

He looked over at her again, trailing his eyes up her long, so very long and soft legs...

"You really should keep your eyes on the road while driving, Booth."

"Oh, right, sorry, but you look very hot in that dress."

"You are referring to my physical appearance and not my bodily temperature, correct?"

"Yes, you look hot." He reiterated.

"Thank you." She tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and smiled.

"You're welcome." The air around them seemed to relax.

"So Bones, how is your Dad?" Brennan turned to Booth, excited that she had actually prepared for this line of conversation.

"He is doing well. He is visiting Russ, Amy and the girls."

"Good, that's good."

"How is Parker doing...academically?"

"Oh, um he is at the top of his class. Actually, he made a family picture for his art class and you were in it."

"I was?"

"Yes. He had Rebecca and Captain Fantastic together, himself in the middle, and me and you on the other side."

"I have only met Parker a couple of times, why would he put me in a family portrait?"

"Because apparently I talk about you a lot, and he has, for a long time, thought that you were my girlfriend."

"Oh."

"Is that ok?"

"Yes, it's just that was really very sweet of him."

"Yeah, well us Booth men like you, what can I say? Besides, you will be spending more time with him in the future, so it was only natural."

"I am not very good with children, Booth."

"Oh, I bet little Andy would beg to differ." They both smiled at the memory of the baby who for a brief moment in time was "their little guy".

"But that wasn't even the best part of the picture."

"It wasn't?"

"No, Parker also drew me with larger muscles than Drew, so yeah it was a really good picture." She laughed slightly and then decided to stay on this line of topic.

"You never really talk about your family."

"What do you mean? I just talked about Parker."

"I mean your parents. How is _your_ Father doing?"

"He's fine." Booth's lips became tight.

"Have you conversed with him recently?"

"My father is not part of my life Bones, and I am fine with that." His tone suggested that she drop the topic.

She clasped her hands in her lap. She had said something wrong, and tension filled the SUV again. He had always insisted on asking her about her family, so she wondered why exactly she couldn't do the same with him.

"Booth, I didn't mean to..."

"I know, Bones."

"It's just you asked me about my father and I thought that family was one of the recommended topics to discuss on a date, so I asked about your family and now you are not saying anything."

"Recommended topics...what?"

"It is customary to discuss familial relations on dates, is it not?"

_There was that word again...customary._ "Did you read a hand book or something on dating?"

"No, Angela mentioned..."

"Oh, Angela...I should have known."

"She told me that I should ask about your family and if you are allowed to ask about my Father, doesn't logic suggest that I be able to ask about yours?"

"Bones, just drop it!" He snapped as his hands gripped the steering wheel.

Booth didn't mean to snap at her, but the topic of his father was not something that he wanted to bring on his date. In fact he never wanted Bones to meet his father, if at all possible. He glanced over at her; she was gazing out the window deep in thought. She was retreating slightly, and he was the cause of it. If it was at all possible he would kick his own ass right now. He was just about to apologize when he noticed the time on the dashboard which read 7: 10pm.

"Oh shit, is that the time?!"

"Yes."

"We're late!" He floored the gas pedal, causing her to grasp the car door handle tightly. He sped the last couple of blocks and wheeled in the parking lot.

"Booth, this is..." She gazed upon the restaurant with the fountain in front of the main doors as an array for finely dressed people could be seen entering and exciting the restaurant.

"Yep, the most authentic, five star French Restaurant in town. Only the best for you, Bones."

"Booth, this place must be really expensive..."

"Don't worry about that..."

"But I make more money than you do..."

"I'm paying, and that is..."

_Knock, Knock_.

The valet, a kid with shaggy blonde hair and what looked like peach fuzz on his upper lip, tapped on his window

Booth pressed the button and the window rolled down. He looked on in disbelief, "Are you even old enough to drive?"

"I will have you know I have a perfect driving record."

"For how long?"

"One whole month." The kid nodded and grinned, exposing his braces.

"No, absolutely not."

"Booth, we are already late."

"But Bones, look at him, there is no way I am going to let him take the SUV!"

"They probably wouldn't have hired them if he wasn't acceptable for the job."

"Listen to your lady, man. I will treat this fine lookin' SUV like it was an extension of my own body."

"Is that supposed to be comforting?"

"Booth..."

"Fine!" He grumbled as he jumped out and shoved the keys and some money in the kid's hand.

He rounded the SUV and was reaching down to her door handle when he stopped. This whole door thing was getting confusing. _I just told her that I would be paying, so maybe I should let her get the door_. Should he, shouldn't he; it was a never ending battle in his mind. She didn't seem to be reaching for the handle so...

Brennan reached down to adjust her shoes slightly, trying to relieve some of the pain they were causing. She was just finishing when she realized that Booth still hadn't opened the door. He was probably just standing there like the last time, so while adjusting the strap slightly on her high heeled shoe she opened the door just as he was leaning down towards it.

_THWACK!_

_THUD!_

"Booth!" She jumped out, wincing when her feet hit the pavement, then knelt down beside Booth on the curb.

"Oooh." He groaned cupping his nose.

"Are you ok man, that like hit your face." The kid stated with absolute certainty, leaning over from his position from behind the wheel of the SUV.

"No kidding!" Booth mumbled.

"I am so sorry! I just didn't want to wait forever for you to open the door this time."

"You know a hot lady like yourself should let a man open the door for her."

"I am aware of the archaic chivalrous gesture, but I fail to see how my physical appearance has anything to do with it."

"Dude, where did you find her?"

"In a museum." Booth grumbled as she helped him to his feet and examined his face.

"Your nose doesn't appear to be fractured, but it is bleeding."

"Dude, your shirt looks like road kill now. Awesome."

"Oh man, this is a rented tux!"

"You know that is not going to come out, right? Blood never does. This one time I got into this fight and..."

"Don't you have a car to park?" The kid threw his hands up in mock surrender before driving the SUV away.

"Booth ..."

"It's ok Bones." She reached in her purse and pulled out some tampons.

"No way, I am not walking into that restaurant with," he put his spare hand to the side of his mouth, "feminine products up my nose."

"You're being ridiculous. They are specifically designed to absorb blood..." His face, if possible, went even redder.

"Not from a nose, Bones. I will just tilt my head back..." She shoved them back into her purse, knowing that he wasn't going to budge on the issue.

"No, that could lead to choking and the blood could irritate your stomach which could lead to vomiting. Use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the soft tissue..."

"The what?"

"Squeeze the place just beneath the bridge of your nose and make sure you tilt your head forward." She took his fingers and placed them correctly then shoved his head down.

Booth didn't know which was more embarrassing: having your girlfriend slam the car door in his face, offering him tampons in front of a five star restaurant to stuff up his nose, or the fact that his girlfriend was leading him into the restaurant with blood on his rented tux. It was a real toss-up.

"Just a little further...um could you do your job and open the door?" Brennan asked as the doorman puffed out his chest and performed the requested act. They made it to the lobby where he sat down and took his fingers away from his nose.

"It seems to have stopped bleeding." She stated with concern in her eyes.

He looked down at his shirt and groaned. He started to think that perfection was slowly slipping away from him.

"Booth, maybe we should go so you can..."

"NO! We came this far. Look," he smiled and winced a little, "...see, it is fine. Let's just get to our table, ok?" She nodded.

He grabbed her hand and bypassed the people who didn't have reservations walking up to the host. He was a frumpy looking Frenchman with an over coiffed moustache. His beady little eyes darted up and down Booth's wardrobe, and his tongue made a clicking noise.

"Name?"

"Seeley Booth." Beady little eyes scrolled up and down the registry and started to shake his head slightly.

"I don't see zhat name here, Monsieur."

"Well, open your eyes and look again." Booth pointed to the registry where his name was clearly written, "Seeley Booth, reservation for two."

"Ah yes, you had a reservation for 7pm, but it is now 7:30, and since you did not call to tell us zhat you would be late, your table has been given away."

"Well, we ran into trouble, so give us another table."

"I cannot do zhat."

"Booth it is ok, we don't have to..."

"No Bones, it is not ok, just let me handle this."

"If you would step aside and let zhe other customers through."

"Look," he moved to the side so only the stuffy little host could hear, "I am trying to take my beautiful partner on our very first date, so could you help me out and just give us a table?" The host looked over Booth's shoulder to gaze upon the woman in question. His eyes went wide with recognition.

"Mon dieu! You are Dr. Temperance Brennan!"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Booth threw his hands up in disbelief.

"Yes, yes I am."

"I am a huge fan of your books. I have zhem all. You are an amazing writer!"

"Yes I know, but about Booth's table..."

"Oh of course, anyzing for you, Dr. Brennan. Right zhis way. I will give you zhe best seat zhat is available."

Booth followed reluctantly. Well, people couldn't say he didn't ever meet her halfway this time. In fact the way the waiter was gushing over her, he would say he was very much just the passenger on this date...but none of that mattered, because he could slowly feel perfection slipping away.

TBC....

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So that was part one of the "perfect" date. I hope all of you liked it and I wonder if any of you can find the two lines that were a throw back to season one of Bones ;D So, yeah the date is not quite what Booth had expected, but this is Booth and Brennan and there is no doubt that everything will turn out alright. Well please leave a review and let me know what you think so far. oh and Happy Bones Day! Cheers :D


	8. The 'Perfect' Date Part II

So here is part II of the date. Thank you to everyone who took the time to post a review; it was greatly appreciated. And a special shout out to CSI-4077 and xHouseLoverx who got the reference to season one of Bones in the last chapter :D So here is chapter 8: The 'Perfect' Date Part II. Enjoy.

I want to especially thank MoonlightGardenias who is my fabulous Beta, who always makes time to edit my story. You rock!

Oh and I don't own Bones yadda yadda yadda....But I do own Melodie. Wow that makes me sound like a pimp, yarg.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As they made their way through the restaurant the Frenchman kept on a constant chatter of praise, sinking Booth into a further state of annoyance. He gazed around the room, noticing the muted colours of gold and beige complementing the dark burgundy accent walls. The ceiling was vaulted and the walls were adorned with, what he only could assume, was classic French art. Booth realized just how expensive this dinner was truly going to be.

As they walked past each table, some of the men started to gaze longingly at Bones, and most of the women openly gaping at Booth, though he was fairly certain that it was due to the fact that he had blood down the front of his shirt.

He moved in close and placed protective hand on the small of her back. She surprised him by reaching around and placing her hand in his. She was used to his touch, and was often comforted by it, but for some reason she felt the need to comfort him at this moment. The date was not going the way he had planned and she was pretty sure it was entirely her fault.

As they were approaching what looked like their table, they walked past a portly and very drunk man. His wife, who apparently was very invested in plastic surgery and tight red dresses, sloshed her drink around the table, trying to explain to her husband why she needed a new car. The woman stopped her wild movements when she saw Booth, her eyes flashed a new challenge, and her gazed followed him all the way to the best table in the house. The portly man started to puff up in anger.

Brennan had noticed the woman and portly man and was not surprised when the woman gazed at Booth as if he was her next meal, but she didn't like it. Brennan tried to pull Booth along, but he slipped his hand from hers and snaked it around her hip causing the woman to shoot daggers from her eyes.

This couple was the only one sitting close to them; otherwise their seat was the best in the house. It was almost completely secluded, yet they could view the entire restaurant from their position.

"I will send zhe waiter over as soon as possible."

"Thank you." Brennan stated.

"Oh, you don't have to zhank me...I am you biggest fan!" The host quickly scurried away to find a waiter.

Brennan looked over at Booth, his forlorn expression descended on his face in a rather permanent way. She had inadvertently smashed his alpha male tendencies, the one thing she never intended to do.

"Booth..."

"It's ok, we are here and our date can finally get started." He reached over and gently took her hand into his, "Did I mention how beautiful you look tonight."

"Yes, you have, but I have to admit that I like hearing it, especially from you."

"Well, then I will never let a day go by without saying it." His thumb started to rub the top of her hand. He sniffed slightly, and his vision became a little blurry.

"Are you sure you are alright, your eyes are turning rather red and your face is getting rather puffy."

"Being here with you makes it all better."

"My physical proximity has nothing to do with you healing your injury and..."

"Good evening, my name is Melodie and I will be your server this evening." Booth looked up and saw sparkling green-blue eyes. Wayward bangs were not cooperating either and she was trying desperately to put them behind her ears. The waitress' eyes went wide when she gazed at Booth.

"Hey! I know you!"

"You do?"

"You're Zack's friend from the bar a couple of months back," her gaze switched to Brennan, "And you must be The Dr. Temperance Brennan Zack speaks so fondly of."

"Oh...you must be the Melodie we hear so much about." Booth commented.

"It's Odie, and I hope so, or else Zack has some explaining to do."

"I thought you worked at that bar as a waitress?"

"Well, that job basically covers my rent, so this job is so I can actually eat." She smiled as Booth looked on in amazement; that this woman could actually be interested in Zack, she was so normal.

"So I guess I will do my job now and give you these," She handed them each a menu still rather flustered at meeting them, "Can I offer you the wine list?"

"No, actually I would like to order your finest bottle of champagne!"

"Wow, big night. Are you celebrating a win for a case?"

"No actually, Booth and I are experiencing our first date."

"Really? The way Zack talks about you two I thought you were already a couple...anyway that is super romantic," She sighed, "I will be right back with your champagne and to take your orders." Odie scurried away.

"Well, I guess there is a person for everyone."

"What does that mean?"

"Come on Bones, she's bubbly, sarcastic, and well..."

"Attractive?"

"You said it, I didn't."

"What's your point?"

"Well, it is kind of hard to see her with Zack."

"Zack is a genius, and while he does not have your symmetrical features or physical prowess, he is not completely unpleasant to look at."

"Zack is _weird_ Bones, he always has been."

"He is not weird, he is a genius." She reiterated.

"Look, I think it is great, he has found someone. Anything that gets him out of the lab."

"There is nothing wrong with the lab." She said, a little defensively.

"Of course not, it's just good to get out like we are doing now. Out in the real world where...."

"Where people generally put themselves on display for a variety of sociological reasons?"

"Is that what you think we are doing?"

"Yes. What we wear and how we dress send hidden messages. Like a peacock displaying its plumage in their courtship ritual."

"What are you trying to say?"

"That woman over there has been staring at you since you came in. Due to your rugged appearance in a tux, and along with the blood on your shirt, you appear to be a romantic, but have a dangerous side to you."

"Which woman?"

"The woman in the red dress, she desires you sexually."

"W-what?"

"She has been progressively displaying more upper thigh and cleavage over the last few minutes trying to get your attention."

"Really?" He had forgotten about the odd looking couple. He turned his gaze and saw that Bones was right. The woman's breasts were practically on her plate.

"Anthropologically speaking, men and women will use their bodies to gain the attention of their intended mate, in order to secure future progeny..."

"Bones..." He stated, only mildly scolding. It was the first time all night she had really talked all Squinty, he found it beyond sexy.

"What? I was just..."..._ talking like a Squint._ Her eyes darted slightly as she started to reach into her memory banks trying to grasp something.

Booth leaned forward, allowing his voice to take on a husky tone, "So, Bones, why don't you tell me how you use your body to..."

"That was quite the game the Hot Wings played the other night."

"The Hot who?...What?" The sudden switch of topics took him by surprise.

"You know the team with grown men who hit the cylindrical black shaped object and each other around while skating on the ice."

"You mean the Detroit Red Wings?"

"Yes, them."

"You watched a hockey game?"

"Hockey...that's right, it was Hockey. Um, no, I read about it."

"Why? You hate sports."

"I don't hate them. I just don't find them as stimulating like you do."

"You told me that it was just a way for men to display their manhood in an act of aggression."

"Yes, that is true...did you watch the game?"

"Yeah...it was really good."

"Good, that's good." She smiled nervously.

"So about what you were saying before about men and women displaying their..."

She buried her nose in the menu not wanting to bore him with all the Squint talk again, "So what are you having?"

Booth gazed at the menu, still reeling from her second attempt at sports talk within one day and the fact that she was avoiding talking like a squint. _Why was she trying so hard...why am I?_

When his eyes finally focused, he felt his mouth go dry. It was all in French! He hadn't quite thought about that in his planning. He was so wrapped up in sweeping her off her feet that he hadn't actually thought how he would order, or know what he was ordering.

_Ok don't panic. Just ask her and get what she was having._ "So Bones what looks good?"

"The main course of loup de mer et purée de fenouil, tempura de gambas avec sauce beurre et vin rouge, sounds very appealing. I wonder if they can make a vegetarian alternative."

_Crap,_ "Yeah, that does sound good." His eyes scoured the menu looking for any words that he recognized. He was all the way to the bottom when he saw it.

"Ratatouille!" He yelled. _Thank god for Parker and his cartoons._

"Is that what you are getting?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"What about your appetizer and dessert?"

_Crap. _

"You know what? I will just have whatever you are having."

"Really? Are you sure?" Brennan asked.

"Yes...I mean Oui." He wiggled his eyebrows slightly. Her mouth turned upwards.

"There it is. I have been waiting for that since we arrived here."

"For what?"

"Your smile."

"You have?"

"You don't do it nearly enough, as far as I am concerned."

"Do those lines usually work on the women you date, Booth?"

"Usually...are they working on you?"

"What do you think?" Her hands mingled with his across the table once again.

Their eyes locked.

Blue and brown eyes streamed pictures of intention, scenes of what was to come across their lines of vision.

The disasters of the date so far seemed to fade away as Brennan started to rub her heeled foot against his pant leg, getting bolder with each stroke of his thumb on her hand.

He fidgeted in his chair, "What are you doing?"

"I am trying to arouse you by stroking your..."

"Bones!" His face went red, but he didn't really want her to stop.

She shifted, rubbing the outside of her foot on his inner thigh, but she felt her heal hook onto his pants. Angela had been adamant that these were the perfect shoes for the dress, but they pinched her feet in all the wrong places and were clearly inadequate to being inappropriate in public.

She wanted better access so she slowly took her foot away and tried to get her offending shoe off with her other foot. She had done the strap up too tight earlier in the SUV, and she couldn't quite get it over her heal.

"Here is your Champagne!" There gazes broke apart, as did their hands at the pop of the cork. Odie poured their drinks, and then filled their water classes. She stepped back beaming, as she held the pitcher.

"Thank you." Booth replied.

"Have you decided yet?"

"Yes, um Bones would you tell her what you want."

Brennan had managed to get the strap over her heal, but it was still stuck to her foot, so she stuck her shoe out from underneath the table and proceeded to flick it a little stronger than intended hitting her knee on the table in the process.

Her shoe went flying and hit Odie, startling her. The latter stumbled backward into the woman in the red dress causing the woman's overflowing breasts to land in her entree.

Her portly husband tried to help her, but she slapped his hand away and ordered him to go get the manager.

The woman swung around in Odie's direction, "How dare you! This is a fine dining institution. I am going to have you fired!" The woman screamed.

"I'm sorry...it was an accident." Odie managed to state while clutching the water pitcher.

Brennan stood and walked over to the young waitress, "It is not her fault. I am the one that hit Odie with my shoe."

"You're to blame for all of this." The woman pointed to her chest area where cream sauce was now dripping down the front of her dress.

"What is going on here?" The beady eyed Frenchman was back, followed by the portly husband.

"There was a minor accident." Booth stated.

"I should have known you were behind zhis." The Frenchman eyed Booth up and down.

"Don't start, Pepe le Pew."

"This woman is to blame." The cream sauced drenched woman stated pointing at Brennan.

"My intent was to remove my shoe to have better access to Booth's groin area; it was not hit anyone with it."

"Bones!" Booth hissed, as the woman's face turned to match the colour of her dress.

Odie bit her lip from laughing at Brennan's bluntness. The Frenchman was at a complete loss for words, and the portly man was trying to stand upright.

The woman moved past Odie towards Brennan, getting right into her personal space.

"How dare you embarrass me like that?!"

"I really don't see how an unintended bump is as embarrassing as having your breasts exposed due to the fact that dress is not in fact your size."

Booth, Odie, and the Frenchman's gazes started to bounce from woman to woman.

"Did you just call me fat?"

"No, you look to be in your appropriate weight range. Though your implants appear to be lopsided and will create back problems in the future." Odie's mouth dropped open and Booth groaned slightly.

"Zhis is not going to end well." The Frenchman whispered as he pushed Odie in front of himself as a shield.

"How dare you!" The woman grabbed the pitcher of water from Odie's hand, shoving her, and subsequently the French man, right into Booth. She heaved its contents in Brennan's face. Within milliseconds Brennan had the woman's' arm behind her back and her face pinned on the table.

Booth moved the two occupants from his lap and tried to intervene, but felt a chubby hand stop him. Booth turned and gazed upon the portly man, reeking of alcohol, intending to defend his woman.

"You better tell your woman to let my wife go."

"Are you serious? Your wife deserves it; she is the one who dumped the water in Bones' face." Booth turned to look at Bones when he heard the pinned woman screech slightly in pain.

Suddenly Booth felt a slap cross his face; instantly his eyes started to sting and his nose started to throb once again. He looked at the prissy man incredulously, not really believing the man would be stupid enough to try anything. It had its desired effect none the less, Booth's nose started to bleed again.

Booth towered over the man, pinching his nose to stop the bleeding. No words were needed, just a look and the man stumbled back and then turned and ran into the woman's rest room.

He looked over at Bones, the front part of her hair that was wet drooped in her face, and her mascara running down underneath her eyes slightly and she had a woman pinned, deservedly so, to the table.

There was no coming back from this and he knew that.

Booth slowly went over to Brennan and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Let her go Bones, she is not worth all this." Brennan knew he was right. She relinquished her grasp and the woman stood.

The woman turned to Booth, "You could do so much better."

"There is no one better than Bones." The woman huffed and then proceeded to follow her husband's footsteps to the ladies' restroom.

Brennan closed her eyes at his words; all he wanted was a perfect date and she had managed to ruin that for him. She looked at him and saw blood start to trickled down his face again.

"I am so sorry for all of this!" Odie stated, her eyes welling slightly.

"As am I. I am so sorry for all of zhis Dr. Brennan, your food is on zhe house tonight."

"It is my fault." Booth stated.

"Booth..."

"We're leaving." He grabbed her hand, walking past a shocked Odie and a rather distressed looking Frenchman.

"I hope you will consider us in zhe future Dr. Brennan!" The Frenchman yelled after them.

Brennan hopped along as fast as she could, still only having one shoe, as they exited the dining establishment.

"Booth, we can still salvage the date..."

"Bones, it's over." She simply nodded and continued following.

They reached the parking and Booth sat on the fountain's edge, still clutching his nose as they waited for the SUV.

Brennan sat down beside him, and opened her purse. She pulled two tampons out and grabbed his face.

"What are you..."

"Be quiet and sit still because this is going to hurt." She proceeded to stuff them up each nostril.

"OW! That hurts!"

"I told you it would! You need to properly handle the bleeding this time."

"This is ridiculous..."

"We aren't in the restaurant anymore and don't even think of removing them." She adjusted one slightly. He crossed his arms as he felt the tampon strings tickle the tops of his lips.

Moments later the SUV came screeching around the corner pulling to an abrupt stop. The kid from earlier stepped out, twirling the keys on his index finger, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Booth.

"Whoa, dude, do you know that you have...uh...girl products in your nose?"

"I had no idea."

"You know they are meant to... you know...stop the rollercoaster ride only available to women."

"Kid, you are pushing it." Booth took a threatening step before Brennan intervened with her outstretched arm.

"Did your date slug you because you tried to feel her up? I tried that once...and no means no man. You have to know that before you take any woman out."

"A man slapped him across the face." Brennan stated matter-of-factly.

"Whoa, that's harsh on the male ego."

"Give me the keys, kid."

"Booth you are in no state to drive," She reached and grabbed the keys from the kid before he could, "So I am taking you home and getting you out of those blood stained clothes." She opened the passenger side door for him.

"Dude after all this you are still getting some!" The kid held out his fist, "Pound it man. You are a God." Booth's eye twitched slightly, as he got in the passenger side door.

She walked lopsidedly past the kid, who was now giving Booth the double thumbs up, around to the driver's side and got in. Booth got in and slammed the door shut as she revved the engine.

Perfection.

That word played over and over in Booth's mind as he watched the street lights pass by on the way home that night. As his tampon filled nostrils throbbed, and his stomach started to lodge its complaints, he thought about his perfect date. He had thought that he would attain that with her, but then he realized it; he had achieved perfection. This evening was perfectly disastrous.

"Booth?"

"Yeah."

"I am sorry that I ruined your evening."

"What! It wasn't your fault, it was mine! I guess I was just trying to hard."

"I think we both were. I really should not have listened to Hodgins."

"What do you mean?"

"Hodgins said that I should talk about sports, let you display your Alpha male tendencies and try and suppress my science talk. Clearly that was bad advice."

"Oh man...and Cam and Angela said that I should meet you half way and suppress my Alpha male tendencies."

"That was very conflicting advice."

"It explains why you were acting so weird."

"Me? You offered to let me drive! You definitely were acting far weirder than I."

"What? No way Bones...the 'Detroit Hot Wings'...come on, that is classic." He laughed when she rolled her eyes.

"Sport names make no sense!"

He laughed even harder, so she playfully slugged him in the arm.

"At least I don't have tampons stuck up my nose."

He loved when her playful side came out. It was so rare that he savoured it as he gazed at her water logged makeup, her droopy hair, and her now wrinkled dress. He was so very lucky to have her in his life.

"You are such a Squint. But you are my Squint," His voice had the most caring tone she had ever heard.

"I will let the possessive nature of the statement go because I do believe that you are my Alpha male."

"I wouldn't want it any other way, Bones."

"Well, at least our first date will be memorable."

"Ah Bones, I just wanted everything to be perfect, that's all."

"It is not the grandiosity of the gesture Booth; it was your meaning behind it that means the most."

He reached over and gently squeezed her hand.

"You know I actually thought about what our first date would be like."

"You did?" Booth asked, disbelievingly.

"Yes. Looking back, the evidence indicates that our relationship has always been about the little things. Our guy hugs, which were never really guy hugs..."

"Took you long enough to catch onto that one..."

She glared at him, "...and the way you placed your hand on the small of my back, little figurines that mean the world to me. I just thought our first date would reflect that."

"Bones..."

"What I am trying to say is that I would have been just as happy to have had our first date eating Mac and Cheese and watching a movie at my apartment."

"What did you say?"

"The evidence indicates that..."

"No after that, about eating Mac and Cheese?"

"Oh, I would be just as happy having our first date in our apartment watching movies."

"Pull over."

"Booth what's..."

"Temperance, pull over."

"Why?"

"Because I am going to kiss you senseless and I don't want to get into a car crash while I do it." Brennan screeched off the road onto the shoulder and turned off the SUV.

She barely got turned around before his lips were on hers. She felt the tampons tickle her face, but that was soon forgotten as his tongue entered her mouth. She feverously returned the action.

Moments later he ripped his mouth away gasping for air, "Sorry...I forgot that I... can't breathe through my nose!"

She chuckled slightly, out of breath herself.

"Our date is not over yet."

"Really? You don't want to go back to..."

"God, no!"

"Then what are we..."

"Do you have all the ingredients for your fabulous Mac and Cheese at your apartment?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because, I have gone about this all wrong."

"You have?"

"Yes, I was trying to sweep you off your feet, but I forgot that you are a Squint, and you don't need sweeping."

"I don't know what that means."

He cupped her face with his hands, "It means that to date a Squint is an experience that only a select few will ever truly get a chance to do and I forgot about that for a brief moment in time and I hope like hell you can forgive me."

"Booth, there is nothing to forgive, you did nothing wrong."

"Yes, I did. I don't need to give you the world."

"I don't want the world."

"I know! And that is the thing all of the other women I was with demanded it in some way or another, but with you that just doesn't happen. You're different."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Of course it is. How could you even ask such a thing?"

"Wouldn't it be easier if I was more like the other women you have dated?"

"Easier, yes," She down casted her eyes, but felt a finger underneath her chin lifting her gaze to his, "but a second with you is more precious than a lifetime with them."

"That doesn't make any sense, but I find myself affected by it nonetheless."

"We are going to fix this night, ok?"

"Ok."

"First we are going to your apartment so you can get cleaned up and make us some mouth-watering Mac and Cheese. Then I am going to whip home, get cleaned up, slap some ice on my nose and be back in an hour or so with some movies." Brennan nodded in agreement as a dusting of tears on the edge of her lower eyelids. She quickly blinked them away and started the SUV back up.

"How does that sound, Bones?"

She looked at him with absolute certainty, "That sounds perfect."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Well there you go...the end of a perfect date...oh wait it isn't quite over yet ;D Next chapter will feature a wee bit of the Squints and the rest is Brennan and Booth fluffiness. Well drop a review and let me know what you think. Cheer :D


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